President Vladimir Putin has left tounges wagging across the globe after he flew aboard a Tu-160M, a modernized version of a Cold War-era bomber to the republic of Tatarstan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporter Zarubin that Putin decided to fly the strategic bomber during a visit on Wednesday to the Kazan Aviation Plant in the republic of Tatarstan.
Putin previously flew a Tu-160 during a training exercise outside Moscow in 2005.
The modernized Tu-160M made its first test flight in January 2022, one month before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
The Tu-160M, a modernized version of a Cold War-era bomber, has two internal bomb bays, each of which can hold up to six cruise missiles or 12 short-range nuclear missiles.
“Together we are observing this unique moment,” Kremlin journalist Pavel Zarubin said in a video of the takeoff published on his Telegram channel, adding that the flight route was a “military secret.”
