Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is said to be incensed after his powerful nuclear missile system Satan-2 failed to launch – so much so that he has fired a key ally
Putin axes space chief after Sarmat missile explodes and fails at test site
An “absolute failure” with Vladimir Putin’s most powerful nuclear missile system is the key reason he fired his former close ally as Russia’s space chief, it has been claimed.
Putin is reportedly exasperated that he cannot convincingly threaten the West with his Satan-2 complex, despite exaggerated boasts that it is already deployed. It comes as ex-deputy Yury Borisov, 68, was summarily dismissed last week as head of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, without being given a new job. Now there is speculation he may face embezzlement charges.
A source told Telegram channel VChK-OGPU – with security service contacts – that the key reason for Borisov’s axing was the lack of progress with Satan-2, known to Russians as Sarmat. The monster hypersonic missile is designed to strike the West by flying over the North or South Poles, making it impossible to take out.
Putin has boasted that the 208-ton intercontinental nuclear weapon, the size of a 14-storey tower block, is “unstoppable”. “Putin’s anger was primarily triggered by the complete failure in the production and deployment of the ‘Sarmat’ missile system, which was meant to replace the outdated ‘Voyevoda’ [Satan],” said the source.
“Issues with the operation of the liquid-fuelled ‘Sarmat’ have not been resolved. There is no proper electronic component base for mass production, the full range of tests hasn’t been completed, and so on.”
Earlier reports suggest that Russia has been hit by sanctions in obtaining hi-tech parts of the lethal missile. In a humiliation for Borisov, a test in September 2024 exploded on the launch at Plesetsk cosmodrome leaving a 200ft wide crater.
A year earlier, Borisov had reported to Putin that the giant missile was on combat duty. Almost a year ago, the Russian dictator boasted in his state-of-the-nation address that Satan-2 was “already….in service with the troops”. He told Russians: “We will soon demonstrate them in the combat duty mode at their deployment bases.” Yet this has not happened.
Astonishingly, there has been only one known successful Satan-2 test launch to date, in April 2022. Satan-2 carries ten nuclear warheads of 750 kilotons each, and Putin’s TV propagandists frequently call for its use to submerge Britain in a tidal wave. Its development has proceeded in extreme secrecy yet reports have leaked out of multiple test failures.
Previous Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin was fired in 2022 due to a lack of progress with the missile. Rogozin was forced to spend time on the frontline in the war – where he wounded his bottom – before being allowed back to Moscow as a senator.
The Telegram channel said Borisov may also face a “backlash” over the much-trumpeted Oreshnik missile, used by Putin without a warhead in Ukraine last year – but not since amid suspicions it, too, is far from ready for effective deployment. There was said to be a “deception” that this was a new missile, when it was actually a cobbled together “version of the Soviet-era intermediate-range missile system ‘Pioneer,’ known to NATO as the SS-20”.
“There was the complete failure [under Borisov] in developing what is referred to as ‘near space’ – including the launch of small satellites for Earth observation (EO) and communications,” said the channel. “Borisov may soon face charges related to embezzlement of state defence funds, dating back to 2012–2014 when he served as Deputy Defence Minister.”
Putin replaced him with high-flyer Dmitry Bakanov, 39, deputy transport minister, seen as an expert on satellites and unmanned vehicles.