Is Russia's Doomsday Bomb Still Operational?

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, we still don't know if Russia's doomsday weapon is still operational. It's a bit of a worry, because the weapon, code name The Dead Hand, is 50,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima:

As far as anyone knows, the Dead Hand remains operational. What is truly worrying, even today, is the secrecy that continues to surround the whole subject. Thompson has found that neither George Schultz nor former CIA director James Woolsey had heard of the Dead Hand system. Former Soviet era officials will still not discuss it. One who dared to talk died in mysterious circumstances. Such secrecy is, as Dr Strangelove realised, disastrous: ‘Yes, but the...whole point of the doomsday machine...is lost...if you keep it a secret! Why didn’t you tell the world, eh?’

The doomsday machine is supposed to be the ultimate deterrent. But if no one knows that the deterrent exists... Well, you've all seen the final scenes of Dr Strangelove.

Link - via markarayner

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by drtundra.

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Eli, while I am happy you read Englishrussia, it is very funny blog sometimes, you cannot honestly get your facts from there. A bunch of old migs and T34s, I don't think the reason they are grounded is because of a lack of parts, it has something to do with them being 50 years old.

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So yopur saying this isn't propaganda, like Reagan's "Star Wars" foolishness?

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Wouldn't trying to turn it off actually trigger it?

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As a Russian who actually knows about the crappy state of the government, the bureaucracy, and the lack of money, I find this panickiness about Russians having horrible weapons and evilly planning to use them someday hilarious.