Just the other day there was an article on ZeroHedge titled Pentagon Document Confirms Existence Of Russian Doomsday Torpedo. It's about a gigantic new Russian nuclear warhead on an autonomous submarine hidden in the oceans and with the purpose to strike and annihilate the United States (or other nuclear armed countries) in case of an attack.

The size of the warhead is "twice the Tsar bomb", which is outstandingly and world-endingly extreme. The Tsar bomb was the biggest ever tested bomb with the equivalent strength of 50 Megatons of TNT.

The scale is nothing short of extreme.

Russia (or its predecessor USSR) has had plenty of experience with huge nuclear bombs and this not just for testing purposes, but also as part of strategic weapon systems like the UR-100N/SS-19, which was more or less the life insurance for the Sowjet Union, because it made sure that every direct military conflict would eventually lead in the usage of the SS-19 capabilities. And considering that one missile is pretty much enough to destroy for example England in its entirety, it became dominant to tackle communism with subversive means and not by force.

An SS-19 system on wheels... somewhere in the vast Russian wilderness.

The implications of the SS-19 and the hidden war between East and West is of course another story, but it clearly shows what difference a weapon system of that size and design is good for - and that it is in fact good for something.

Russia Forces The United States Into A Nuclear Equilibrium

A few years ago in a statement, Wladimir Putin quite bluntly expressed the Russian position on the nuclear table and made it very clear that they won't follow the play by the US policy planers, who apparently try to be as irrational and incalculable as possible. It's worth watching:

Like political Russia or like it not. But can you imagine a Western politician to just speak his mind in that manner?

There he described Russia as a major player for the global nuclear equilibrium and overall as decisive force for the facilitation of peace - or at least the prevention of war. The Russian position on this derives from the experience in the Cold War, in which the country couldn't be attacked or overwhelmed with military means because of its nuclear arsenal.

The conclusion was: Despite the ideology driven Cold War, the world was at relative peace. What brought peace? The assured mutual destruction and Russia delivered half of that. This means that even without ideological and territorial differences (at least not major ones), it makes sense to keep up this global nuclear balance. After all, Russia is huge and at the pivot of the world and history shows too well that wars can break out for seemingly no reason and since Russia and other countries still have vast arsenals, it could easily lead to a devastating annihilation. That's why, the strongest possible strategic nuclear deterrent with the built in mutual destruction is the best option for everyone.

Russia occupying most of the global pivot area.

Putin And Russia Did Not Always Follow That Agenda - Germany And Merkel Caused The Change

At first in post-Cold War era and especially since Putin became president and stabilized Russia, the country was not following the strategy. Putins idea was to embed end entangle Russia as closely with Western Europe as possible. Especially Germany was supposed to become a major player and Putin (who lived a decade in Eastern Germany) expressed more than just once the Russian interest to integrate both systems economically and financially. And it does make sense. Germany has technology and productivity and Russia has resources and space. Both countries need what the other one has. This was historically the case and still is.

What made things even better was that president Putin and former chancellor Schröder became friends. Something that still is very important. Both pushed projects and made sure there were enough win-win situations. But with the change in government from Schröder to Merkel in Germany, things dramatically changed.

Merkel is more or less a CIA/BND/KAS product and didn't have much interest in Schröders (a Social-Democrat by the way) ideas of Germany having its own geo-strategic positioning and that included a different position towards Russia than other European and Western countries have. Historically, Russia and Germany are relatively close.

Putin and Schröder - still friends.

Under Merkel, all that was now gone: Germany gave up its self-interest as a nation and became another tool to further the agenda to remove Russia from the geo-strategic map. Putin almost fell for that, but eventually, there was a shift away from Germany - and this long before the Ukraine sanctions - and towards Asia and other countries following strategic interests in the global arena like Turkey, Iran and China.

Overall, with the relations in Europe deteriorating (and this kind of for no reason), Russia decided to fundamentally change its outlook and become more independent, further the internal development, diversify the trade and diplomatic ties, follow a strict rational regime in its approach and also go back to what worked in the past. The latter on a social and cultural level meant to go back to the Orthodoxy and on a military level it meant to go back to the idea of the guaranteed mutual destruction.

Horror for Putin personally, when the CIA killed his personal driver (speculation).

The New Bomb Is As Nasty As Possible

The latest high-tech developments in the war business are usually about more precision, more speed and less collateral. This is to maximize the effect while minimizing the damage to what you could need afterwards. The new Russian bomb is pretty much the opposite. The article states:

Kanyon is designed to attack coastal areas, destroying cities, naval bases, and ports. The mega-bomb would also generate an artificial tsunami that would surge inland, spreading radioactive contamination with the advancing water. To make matters worse there are reports the warhead is “salted” with the radioactive isotope Cobalt-60. Contaminated areas would be off-limits to humanity for up to 100 years.

The bomb is cruel and terrible on purpose - not just by the name like the French submarine fleet - to literally make even the thought of an invasion by a foreign power completely impossible. Russia forces the United States (but in a few years and decades also India and China) into following its idea of a global equilibrium that is kept together by the outlook of sheer horror.

Former CIA director Michael Morell talks about punishing Putin.

With the new Kanyon system, the only way you could possibly topple Russia is with cultural means, or with designed natural catastrophes, or some weapon that is completely new that can't be countered. Culturally, Russia currently rediscovers its roots and embraces them in a surprisingly liberal environment (in the classic sense). In terms of natural catastrophes, Russia is too big and it basically is already used to extremes quite well. Which leaves the last option with disruptive weapons or means of force that can neutralize Kanyon. It is imaginable, but don't forget that Reagans Star Wars program against the SS-19 never worked - at least not directly.

But what about the leaks? After all, the plans for the weapon system has been leaked. So, maybe there are concerned Russian scientists who don't want to play along and follow their conscience. On this, I would say, it was part of the design. Russia wants the United States and the entire world to know exactly, who much it would devastate them in case of an aggression.

At the end, the United States and the world can now only follow Russia and its latest move in the grand chess game of the global nuclear strategic balance.

Bottom line: You can call all that insane - and on a certain level it clearly is - but the thought process behind this new nuclear bomb system is a very rational one and I think with Kanyon, Putins Russia is playing another extremely strong hand.

What do you think about this? Did Russia do the right/necessary thing or is it just another crazy move by an out of control irrational authoritarian regime?