On Wednesday, over tea and cakes with veterans of the Ukraine war, President Vladimir Putin announced Russia had tested a new weapon.
There is nothing like this, the Russian leader said of the Poseidon - a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable underwater drone that can be fired like a torpedo and which a senior Russian MP said could put entire states out of operation.
When it was first unveiled in 2018, Russian media said the Poseidon would be able to achieve a speed of 200km/h (120mph) and travel in a constantly changing route that would make it impossible to intercept.
Putin's claim came only days after the announcement that Moscow had conducted a test of its unlimited-range Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.
It's a unique product, unmatched in the world, Putin said of the Burevestnik, noting the missile was so new we are yet to identify what it is, what class of weapons [it] belongs to.
It is not unusual for Russia to test and flaunt weapons. And, despite the boisterous nature of Russian announcements, their military value is ambiguous.
They are basically Armageddon weapons - too powerful to be used unless you're happy to destroy the world, Mark Galeotti, a Russia scholar, told the BBC.
Both the Poseidon and the Burevestnik are second-strike, retaliatory weapons, and not even the most rabid Kremlin propagandists are suggesting anyone is preparing to launch strikes on Russia.
It is also unclear whether the weapons are actually viable. In 2019, five Russian nuclear engineers died in a rocket engine explosion linked to the Burevestnik.
Two years later, the International Institute of Strategic Studies noted that Russia faced considerable technical challenges in ensuring the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit of the missile.
Neither the Poseidon nor the Burevestnik were entirely novel - both had first been presented to the world in 2018 as part of a new array of weapons that Putin called invincible.
So it is the timing of the announcements - rather than their contents - that could be noteworthy.
After a whirlwind few months of tentative diplomacy by US President Donald Trump to try and bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, Trump appears to have cooled off on the endeavor to end the war.
Last week, the White House canceled a summit between Trump and Putin, apparently after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio realized the gulf between Moscow and Washington's positions was too great for a high-level meeting to achieve meaningful results.
And while his relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seems to still be fraught, it appears Trump is growing irritated with Moscow's intractability.
In the face of Trump blowing hot and cold with his support for Ukraine or sympathy to Russia, Moscow seems to be sending a message that it remains powerful.
Three-and-a-half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its troops continue to struggle with no apparent breakthroughs. The announcements about the Burevestnik and the Poseidon could be reflective of the weakness of their conventional forces.
The Kremlin's decision to publicly announce these tests suggests an attempt to provoke a reaction from the US, with Trump recently indicating the resumption of American nuclear weapons testing as a response.
In conclusion, while Russia's nuclear capabilities remain a contentious subject, the reality of their effectiveness is still debated by experts and the recent military actions indicate the ongoing complexities in the Ukraine conflict.
