Russian state TV lists American targets for nuclear strikes

Days after President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin wouldn’t back away from a second “Cuban Missile”-style crisis, Russian state TV listed US facilities that Moscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike — including the Pentagon and the presidential retreat at Camp David.

With tensions mounting over Russian fears that the US might deploy intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, Putin has said Russia would be forced to respond by placing hypersonic nuclear missiles on submarines near American waters.

Washington says it has no immediate plans to deploy such missiles in Europe and has dismissed Putin’s warnings as mere propaganda — but President Trump’s decision to leave the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty over an alleged Russian violation has freed it to start developing and deploying such missiles.

The Russian strongman has said Moscow does not want a new arms race, but has also ratcheted up his military rhetoric, which some analysts have viewed as a tactic to try to re-engage the US in talks about the strategic balance between the two powers.

On a Sunday evening broadcast, TV show “Vesti Nedeli” presenter Dmitry Kiselyov showed a map of the US and identified several targets that he said Moscow would want to hit in the event of a nuclear war.

The targets, which Kiselyov described as US presidential or military command centers, also included Fort Ritchie, a military training center in Maryland closed in 1998; McClellan, a US Air Force base in California closed in 2001; and Jim Creek, a naval communications base in Washington state.

Kiselyov said the “Tsirkon” hypersonic missile that Russia is developing could hit the targets in less than five minutes if launched from Russian subs.

Hypersonic flight is generally taken to mean traveling through the atmosphere at more than five times the speed of sound.

“For now, we’re not threatening anyone, but if such a deployment takes place, our response will be instant,” he said.

Kiselyov once said Moscow could turn the US into radioactive ash.

Asked to comment on Kiselyov’s report, the Kremlin said Monday it did not interfere in the editorial policy of state TV.

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