chernobyl

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Tianjin, China in September. Putin has announced Russia tested a nuclear missile and is ready to deploy it. File photo by Russia’s Presidential Office/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 26 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country has tested a new, nuclear-capable missile and is preparing to deploy it.

Putin’s military maneuver comes just after a planned meeting with President Donald Trump collapsed.

The weapon runs on nuclear power, which makes it capable of flying much further than other missiles, according to the Kremlin, and is able to evade missile detection and defense systems.

“This is a unique product that no one in the world has, Putin, dressed in military fatigues, said during a meeting with military commanders, according to a video posted by the Kremlin. “We need to identify potential uses and begin preparing the infrastructure for deploying this weapon in our armed forces.”

Valery V. Gerasimov, general staff of the Russian armed forces, said the missile had remained in flight for 15 hours and traveled 8,700 miles during testing.

“It is a tiny flying Chernobyl,” Gerasimov said during a briefing, referring to a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that became widely known for a catastrophic explosion in 1986.

The missile, known as the SSC-X-9, has been in development for years, and while Putin’s announcement was not a surprise, nuclear experts say it is a bad turn of events.

“This is a bad development,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear nonproliferation expert at Middlebury College. “It is one more science fiction weapon that is going to be destabilizing and hard to address in arms control.”

Putin’s announcement of the missile revives the back and forth between the United States and Russia over nuclear arms, but the first action since President Donald Trump took office in January.

It is the latest in a long series of volleys over nuclear arms between the two countries stretching back decades.

The housing estate of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga has become a no-go area, with gang violence a regular feature of an abandoned project that is now crumbling into the ground

A big ‘no entry’ sign hangs ominously above the entrance to an abandoned town known as the ‘Mexican Chernobyl‘.

Unlike the Ukrainian town, which was evacuated following the nuclear meltdown of 1986, the housing estate of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga is not empty of almost all human life as a consequence of a futuristic energy solution gone wrong.

The housing complex was built with the people of the Guadalajara district in mind, designed to provide safe, spacious homes for families there. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, there are 70,000 homes in Tlajomulco. Just 12 years after they were built, all of them are empty.

It takes a brave soul to visit the abandoned town. The unfinished buildings tower ominously over the empty streets. Many have no windows and have been battered by the elements. Plants have broken through the cracks in the brickwork, upon which graffiti has been slapped.

READ MORE: Inside most secret radioactive site in US said to be ‘Chernobyl in making’

Inside some, there are hundreds of scratches on the wall. In others, food and clothing have been scattered on the floor. The properties are occasionally frequented by homeless people looking for shelter for the night, although they have a long 20-mile journey from the bustling centre of Guadalajara over swaying fields of grass that seem to hold in the silence of the eerie settlement.

The area is under the control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), reports Info Bae, meaning the YouTubers, media outlets and tourists who venture to the housing complex for a poke around do so at no small risk to themselves.

In the last six years, the area has become a go-to place for those looking to get rid of a body. Officials found 54 bodies in clandestine graves in the area in December 2019, and a further 110 in July 2020, reports La Jornada.

Next to the unfinished buildings are apartment blocks that stand over them, both a legacy of the construction company that went bust in 2014. The Mexican Army set up one of its bases in one of these apartment towers.

Mexico has a huge number of abandoned homes, with some estimates putting the total nationwide into the millions. As in the case of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, housing estates are built on the outskirts of urban centres specifically for working people and their families.

During periods of wage stagnation and inflation, many have defaulted on unfavourable mortgages. At the same time, construction firms, including the one responsible for Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, have struggled to complete ambitious jobs. Some of the homes in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga are finished and ready for habitation, while other sections consist of half-built shells.

READ MORE: Creepy ghost town suddenly abandoned now overrun with polar bearsREAD MORE: Abandoned town left to rot for 40 years after plane crash horror

Some families still live in the housing complex, but it is a far cry from the brief period when a majority of the buildings were occupied. The remaining few live under a cloud of fear. “Those who stayed are living under a self-imposed curfew. At 6pm no one leaves their homes, and outside, only the wind and criminals roam the streets,” La Jornada adds.

Guillermina Sánchez is one of the limited number still living in estate, along with her husband. She adheres to the 6pm curfew after her partner was badly beaten while leaving their home, NMas reports.

“It gets really ugly out there,” she said.