BBC News reports: “The head of Russia’s federal space agency has said it will work to divert an asteroid which will make several passes near the Earth from 2029.

Anatoly Perminov told the Voice of Russia radio service that the agency’s science council would hold a closed meeting to discuss the issue.

Any eventual plan is likely to be an international collaboration, he said.

The US space agency said in October that there is a one-in-250,000 chance of Apophis hitting Earth in 2036.

That announcement was a significant reduction in the probability of an impact, based on previous calculations that put the chances at about one-in-45,000. The asteroid is estimated to pass within about 30,000 km of the Earth in 2029.

Mr Perminov, who is the chief of Roscosmos, gave little detail of any plans that the agency has, but was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that the solution would not entail the use of nuclear weapons.

Other schemes that have been put forth in the past for diverting asteroids from collision courses include spacecraft that nudge the space rocks out of their trajectory through force, or diverting them with ‘solar sails’ that use the wind of particles ejected from the Sun…” (Both Russia and China are drastically concerned about the damage asteroids may create upon planet earth. The one in this report, the size of a football field could hit our earth with the force of 100,000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. Russia, China, and the U.S. would like to shatter them with atomic laden missiles. If they can’t, one asteroid hit could cause darkness to permeate the globe with 120 days of total darkness. It’s coming – Matthew 24:29; Joel 2:31; Acts 2:20 all because of Revelation 6:12.)

BBC News reports: “Russia will continue developing new nuclear missiles and launchers despite disarmament talks with the US, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev says.

‘Of course, we will develop new systems, including delivery platforms, or missiles. This is routine practice, the entire world is doing it,’ he said.

Speaking in a live TV interview, Mr. Medvedev said this would not bypass agreements with the US.

Russia says it successfully tested a long-range SS-18 missile.

The missile – called an RS-20 Voyevoda in Russia – was fired from Orenburg in central Russia and hit targets in Kamchatka, in the far east, the Ria Novosti news agency reported.

So far Russia and the US have failed to find a successor to the Cold War-era Start 1 treaty. That treaty, which led to deep cuts in nuclear arsenals on both sides, expired on 5 December.

Asked why there had been a delay, Mr. Medvedev said ‘this is a difficult question, a very difficult one’.

‘This is a treaty which determines the parameters for developing and reducing the strategic arms potential of two of the biggest nuclear states. We are moving very quickly as it is. We have agreed on almost everything.’

Both sides have agreed to continue observing Start 1 – which was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush Senior in the final days of the Soviet Union – until they reach a new agreement…” (The above report is very disappointing since President Obama is negotiating a new treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons in both of our nations. Sadly, Russia is creating additional nukes and armaments for a predicted war. Which will undoubtedly be World War 3 or Armageddon – Revelation 16:16. See Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39 and Joel chapter 3. See also the next report.)

BBC News reports: “Russia needs ‘to develop offensive weapons systems’ to counter US missile defences and maintain the strategic balance, PM Vladimir Putin says.

Otherwise, the United States would feel ‘completely protected’ and able to ‘do whatever they want’.

The US dropped controversial plans for missile defence bases in the Czech Republic and Poland, but said it would develop other defensive systems.

Mr Putin said such plans were hindering nuclear arms reduction talks.

Russia and the US are yet to find a successor to the Cold War-era Start I treaty, which expired on 5 December.

The 1991 treaty led to deep cuts in nuclear arsenals on both sides.

Both sides have agreed to continue observing Start I until they reach a new agreement.

Under a joint understanding signed in July, deployed nuclear warheads should be cut to below 1,700 on each side within seven years of a new treaty – a huge cut on Soviet-era levels.

Nonetheless, between them the two countries will retain enough firepower to destroy the world several times over.

‘To preserve the balance, we must develop offensive weapons systems, not missile defence systems as the US is doing,’ Mr Putin said during a visit to Russia’s Far East.

‘The problems of missile defence and offensive arms are very closely linked.

‘By building such an umbrella over themselves our [US] partners could feel themselves fully secure and will do whatever they want, which upsets the balance,’ the Russian premier added.

Mr Putin did not say what kind of offensive weapons Russia was seeking to develop…”