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What Russia announced on 27 December 2019
Summary
A look back at the Avangard deployment announcement and the other Russia-related reports in the days around it.
What did Russia want the world to hear on 27 December 2019? Its Ministry of Defence announced the first deployment of the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle and called it a "landmark event".
President Vladimir Putin said the system's top speed was over Mach 20. He also said it put Russia's military "ahead of all other nations".
Other reports from the preceding days
The announcement came after several other Russia-related developments in the preceding week.
On 21 December 2019, Nord Stream 2 said it would finish construction of the Russian gas pipeline to Europe "as soon as possible". A contractor had suspended pipe-laying work because of U.S. sanctions on the project.
On 23 December 2019, construction of the bridge across the Kerch Strait was completed. A railway linking Russia with Crimea, which Russia occupies, was put into operation.
On 24 December 2019, a war monitor reported that eight people, five of them children, were killed when a missile struck a school in Jobas, in Idlib District, northwestern Syria. The school was being used as a shelter for displaced civilians. Opposition activists blamed Russia. This was during the northwestern Syria offensive, which ran from December 2019 to March 2020.
What the day showed
The Avangard announcement was Moscow's own account of its military standing, and the claims about speed and rank came from Mr Putin. The reports from 21, 23 and 24 December concerned sanctions, infrastructure and a war in Syria, and all involved Russia in some way.
