Russia Test-Fires ICBM to Target in Kazakhstan

    Russia test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from a test site in southern Russia on Tuesday evening, a Russian defense ministry spokesman said.
    Kapustin Yar is about 450 km (280 miles) east of the Ukrainian border. The launch coincided with reports of large deployments of apparently Russia-commanded troops in Crimea, which President Vladimir Putin denied on Tuesday.
    Spokesman Igor Yegorov said the launch took place at 22:10 Moscow time (6:10 p.m. GMT) from the Kapustin Yar testing range in southern Russia’s Astrakhan Region.
    The test was successful as the simulated warhead hit a designated target at a test range in Kazakhstan.
    Yegorov said the aim of the test was to test suggested improvements of the ICBM, which entered service in 1985.
    Russian naval warships and coastal troops conducted live fire exercises Monday in the country’s western Kaliningrad and Leningrad Regions, a Ministry of Defense spokesperson said.
    Despite the urgency of the situation in Ukraine, Russia is well-positioned to benefit, and it would be a huge mistake not to press its advantages home.
    Nobody noticed the sincere pro-Russian attitudes in parts of the country, and in this sense the Crimean Maidan proved to be very useful – it showed the West a different Ukraine, one that is with neither the pro-Western forces nor the discredited government, Ria Novosti states.