Russia's new arms race?

http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20090717_2989.php

This article describes Russia’s latest attempt to improve their nuclear capability – a Bulava test that didn’t go well. Perhaps I can now see why Michael Kuznetsov and I seemed to have a verbal disconnect. Living in the enlightened age of Obama as I do, I had given up thinking about nuclear weapons as anything more than a relic of the cold war. Obama wants to get rid of them, and they do seem to be rather impractical in terms of the wars we are likely to have to fight.

But Russia, perhaps after some paranoid war-games, has concluded it needs to get back in the war-race-game with some new nuclear capability. But they don’t seem to be managing very well. Their latest Bulava exploded in midair during a test yesterday. This means that six of their “missile runs” have ended in failure.

One of the disconnects I thought I saw in the exchange with Michael is that I spoke of the Russian draft as being obsolete. He then responded with a 2006 article that referred to the US nuclear “first strike” capability. Maybe Russia is using some of its draftees on their Bulava missile program. That would explain everything.