Russian President Vladimir Putin is eager to show off his country’s nuclear arsenal. And apparently, “showing off” includes a demonstration video depicting those nukes hitting Florida.
During his annual address to Russia’s Federal Assembly, President Putin flaunted the country’s RS-28 Sarmat nuclear-powered missiles, which sport an unlimited range. In the middle of his speech, he cut to a video presentation.
The video shows a volley of those nuclear missiles launching from facilities in the Russian wilderness. They take to the air impressively, but their target is perhaps the most interesting part of the video. The Russian nukes were apparently launched at Florida’s west coast.
That’s suspiciously close to the site of President Trump’s private Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, Gizmodo points out. The location has been dubbed the “Winter White House” due to the amount of time the president spends there.
“Any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, any kind of attack, will be regarded as a nuclear attack against Russia and in response we will take action instantaneously no matter what the consequences are,” Putin said during the speech. “Nobody should have any doubt about that.”
The Russian Assembly broke out in applause when the video depicting the nuke’s reach was showed. Putin added that the range is “unheard of” among other countries. “They may come up with something like this in the future, but by that time our guys will come up with some new ideas as well.”
In yet another weirdly dystopian twist, the Russian Ministry of Defense is apparently taking submissions from the public to name the country’s newest nuclear missiles.
To be fair, the depicted location of the nuke’s target is probably a coincidence. The Russian government first uploaded the animated footage to YouTube in 2015, and Russian media suggests the video was created as early as 2007 — before Trump became president. The same video has apparently been shown on multiple occasions to show off Russia’s nuclear prowess.
If you’d like to watch Putin’s full state-of-the-nation speech, you can view it (with English translations) via the YouTube channel for Russian state-backed news outlet RT.com.