December 26, 2007 (LPAC) -- Russia successfully tested a new type of ballistic missile yesterday which converts into a cruise missile in the descent phase, making it almost impossible to intercept with conventional anti-missile missile systems.

The Christmas Day launch was a clear signal of Russia's continuing displeasure with U.S. plans to station anti-missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech republic, and of Moscow's stated intention to develop asymmetric response systems. Russian officials also said a land-launched RS-24 missile with multiple warheads had been successfully test-fired form the Plesetsk range in northern Russia, and that a rocket carrying the last three satellites for a mapping and navigation system to rival the U.S. Global Positioning System had been launched.

The new hybrid missile, known as the RSM-54, or Sineva, was launched Dec. 25 from the Russian nuclear missile submarine Tula in the Barents Sea, and hit a target on the Kura shooting Range on the Kamchatka peninsula in the Far East. It was the second launching in a week of the new type missile.

At the same time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin lambasted once again the U.S. plans to build anti-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Kamynin responded directly to an interview by Czech Foreign Minister (Prince) Karel Schwarzenberg, published at the end of last week, in which the Czech official said he wanted the U.S. radar to guarantee surveillance of Russian territory. Kamynin said this was more proof that the U.S. missile defense system in eastern Europe is being built solely to disrupt the strategic balance and gain the edge over Russia, not to defend against a non-existent threat of Iranian missiles.

Russian President Putin made a dramatic offer last summer for the United States to participate in a joint U.S.-Russian missile radar defense at a base Russia leases from Azerbaijan. To date, Moscow considers Washington's formal responses to the offer to be inadequate.