Putin monitors drills simulating nuclear strike by Russia

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday monitored drills by Russia's strategic nuclear forces involving multiple practice launches of ballistic and cruise missiles rehearsing a "massive nuclear strike" by Russia, the Kremlin said. Putin was briefed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about how the exercise intended to simulate Russia's response to a nuclear attack on the country. The Defense Ministry's Zvezda military news channel showed Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov telling Putin the exercise involved the test-firing of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the northern Plesetsk launch site and the launch of a Sineva ICBM by a Russian nuclear submarine in…