Russia to add more intercontinental ballistic missiles: Russia will add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year, president Vladimir Putin says. Mr Putin made the announcement a day after Russian officials denounced a US plan to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia’s border as the most aggressive US act since the Cold War.

“More than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles able to overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defence systems will be added to the make-up of the nuclear arsenal this year,” Mr Putin, flanked by army officers, said in a speech to a military and arms fair.Later, after a meeting with Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto, Mr Putin said Russia would be forced to aim its armed forces at any countries which might threaten it.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, briefing reporters via teleconference from Boston, where he is recovering from surgery on a broken leg, called Putin’s announcement concerning.We’re trying to move in the opposite direction,” Kerry said. “We have had enormous cooperation from the 1990s forward with respect to the structure of nuclear weapons in the former territories of the Soviet Union. And no one wants to see us step backwards.

The Russian military is currently estimated to have about 4,500 nuclear warheads, including nearly 1,800 strategic warheads deployed on missiles and at bomber bases, and 700 strategic warheads stored along with 2,700 non-strategic warheads. The country is also estimated to have nearly 3,500 retired, but largely intact, nuclear warheads ready to be dismantled. The navy also demonstrated a mock-up of a new amphibious landing ship, which is similar to the France-made Mistral-class ship, whose delivery to Russian has been suspended over the crisis in eastern Ukraine.