Document was left out in view when NTV and Channel One filmed Vladimir Putin meeting with military officials in Sochi

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Kremlin has admitted that Russian television accidentally showed secret plans for a nuclear torpedo system on air.



Two Kremlin-controlled channels, NTV and Channel One, showed a military official looking at a confidential document containing drawings and details of a weapons system called Status-6, designed by Rubin, a nuclear submarine construction company based in St Petersburg.

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The nuclear torpedoes, to be fired by submarines, would create “zones of extensive radioactive contamination making them unsuitable for military or economic activity for a long period”, says the document, which is clearly visible in the footage for several seconds.

The images were filmed during a meeting of President Vladimir Putin with military officials in the Black Sea city of Sochi on Monday.

The footage was aired on Tuesday and later deleted by the channels, but several websites still published screenshots from it.

“It’s true some secret data got into the shot, therefore it was subsequently deleted,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists.

“In future we will undoubtedly take preventive measures so this does not happen again.”

It remained unclear how the images ended up being broadcast on the tightly controlled channels.

The document was shown at a meeting where Putin warned that “Russia will take necessary retaliatory measures to strengthen the potential of our strategic nuclear forces”