President Putin dresses up to play war games Russian President Vladimir Putin sits inside the Tupolev-160 strategic bomber jet at the Moscow's Chkalovsky military airport (AFP) President Vladimir Putin donned navy uniform to watch a missile launch at sea yesterday, hours after dressing as a pilot and flying in a supersonic bomber. "I think a man in my position must know how it all happens," the president said after a five-hour flight on a giant TU160 strategic bomber to test-fire a cruise missile over northern Russia. Then, Putin, flanked by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, stood on board of the Pyotr Veliky cruiser to watch the Sineva missile blast out of the water and vanish into the gray sky after being launched by the submerged nuclear submarine Yekaterinburg near the Kola Peninsula. It hit a target 5,000 miles away in Russia's far east, helping to offset the failed missile launches when he attended his country's largest naval exercises in two decades last year. The former KGB spy is a regular guest at lavish demonstrations of his country's military might. As well as a missile launch, yesterday's flight involved mid-air refuelling and a low-level pass just 200 yards above the sea's surface at 560mph. Putin said he was pleased with the result of the exercise, in which a group of Northern Fleet ships and submarines were to prevent another group from deploying into the open sea and simulating the launch of nuclear missiles. "Everyone probably remembers the failed launch last year," Putin said at a news conference on the Pyotr Veliky. "Now, all of the shortcomings have been corrected." After leaving an Arctic air base to join this week's war games , Mr Putin, 52, played down his simulated bombing raid. "I think that's how people feel when they fly in their dreams at night," he said of the experience. His visibility at exercises featuring nuclear test launches underscores his commitment to modernizing Russia's strategic forces.
