THE BEST DEFENSE… Putin unveils new Russian nuclear missile, says it renders defenses ‘useless.’

He boasted that Russia’s new ICBM is “powerful and modern and defense systems will not be able to withstand it,” he said. “Missile defences will be useless against it.”

Other new weapons include the Avangard — an intercontinental hypersonic missile that would fly to targets at a speed 20 times the speed of sound — and a weapons system called Kinzhal, already deployed in southern Russia, that uses hypersonic missiles that can strike targets 1,250 miles away.

That’s great. But Russia had better learn to ween its economy off of oil dependency, if Putin expects to buy more than a handful of his new systems. Procurement of Moscow’s new Su-57 stealth fighter and revolutionary T-14 Armata tank has already been cut and/or postponed due to sanctions and low oil prices.