Russia tests new ballistic missile

Russia’s military on Friday conducted its second test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile that Russian officials say could reach any target in the world, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russia’s military carried out the test of the Sarmat missile system at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a spaceport in western Russia, while Russian intelligence tweeted out a video of the successful test.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that the new Sarmat missile system would render any U.S. missile defense system “useless” and warned the West that it had “failed to contain Russia” in remarks to lawmakers and political elites.

The Sarmat system is “powerful and modern and defense systems will not be able to withstand it,” Putin said earlier in March.

“Missile defenses will be useless against it,” he added.

The missile test follows accusations that Russia poisoned an ex-Russian spy on British soil earlier this month with a Soviet-developed nerve agent.

Russia has denied it was behind the attack, but the United Kingdom, U.S. and a number of European countries have concluded the poisoning was tied to Russia.

Dozens of Russian diplomats were expelled this week from consulates in the U.S. and Britain, followed closely by the reciprocal expulsion of American diplomats from Moscow and the closure of a U.S. consulate in St. Petersberg.

“With these steps, the United States and our allies and partners make clear to Russia that its actions have consequences,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement this week.