Best-Selling Author Peter Senese Makes Donation To I CARE Foundation Helping Families Targeted For International Abduction

Peter Senese, author of the critically-acclaimed novel, Chasing The Cyclone, made a promise years ago - after having his child internationally abducted to the other side of the world - he said: “A long time ago, while I was searching… I made a promise to one day try to make a difference so others would never have to chase the cyclone.  My work continues…”

And his work does continue today.  Not only is Peter Senese a best-selling author, but he is also the Founding Director of the I CARE Foundation, an organization dedicated to conducting research and raising social awareness about the serious issue of international child abduction.  The I CARE Foundation has also played a major role in creating legislative initiatives that are helping to reduce the rate of abduction.

Peter Senese has made it very clear that he is committed to helping families targeted for international abduction, both through his work with the I CARE Foundation and by the fact that he so generously donates 100% of the royalties earned from the sale of his e-books,including Chasing The Cyclone and The Den Of The Assassin.

The fast-paced, legal thriller, Chasing The Cyclone has been heralded as a must read by targeted parents that are desperately trying to protect their children from international child abduction.  Peter Senese's novel has been recognized by child abduction prevention advocates as a road map on how a parent may either prevent the international abduction of their child or reunite with their child.  As international parental child abduction continues to be a grave concern for thousands of parents each year, resource guides that outline child abduction risk factors and preventive measures against abduction are critically important.  Chasing The Cyclone provides parents with keen insight on these issues.

The Den Of The Assassin is being praised by top critics as an international financial espionage thriller that is filled with the modern-day realities of our post 9-11 world.  The story is steeped with realism and the frightful possibilities of global cyber and biological terrorism.  It opens in New York City where unassuming investment banker, Tyler Boxter, is preoccupied with his career on Wall Street, which acts a personal shield against the trappings of life that hides the guilt, pain and memories he doesn't want. During one of the biggest deals of his career, and unknown to Boxter, he is about to play a sophisticated but explosive game against a savage and merciless madman.

Peter Senese had this to say about The Den Of The Assassin: "For readers who enjoy fast-paced, multi-dimensional plots based upon historical events and plausible possibilities relevant to the world we live in today, The Den Of The Assassin will take readers on a thrilling global geopolitical journey that begins in New York City's Wall Street.  The reader is quickly introduced to the hidden and unseen worlds that exists within nations that have highly questionable agendas toward the United States and the West, including, but not limited to, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.  It is here, in there worlds that disturbing plans that stand against America and the West's idea of liberty and freedom are carefully hatched and cultivated.  Most concerningly, as each nation has become more reliant on one another in our global society, a new level of extraordinary vulnerability to our national security has been created, on perhaps we may not be prepared for.  In The Den Of The Assassin, I believe readers will find the uniquely accurate information on this subject that is carefully weaved through an intricate, entertaining storyline to be quite fascinating - and disturbing."

Reviewers of The Den Of The Assassin have praised Peter Senese's storytelling.  

Renowned book critic Daniel Jolley commented: "This is one seriously good thriller.  Billed as a 'novel of international finance and espionage', Den Of The Assassin is a super-realistic exploration of frightening possibilities, unsurpassed heroism, Lucifer-life evil, and terrorism of the worst kind... The novel revolves around some kind of Day of the Jackal-like assassination plot, but the complexity of this novel stretches it's tendrils deeply into international finance, the vagaries of the American legal and health care systems, international terrorism, diplomacy, intelligence, WMD, and cold-blooded murder - with a little romance thrown in just to stir up the pot a little more.  Peter Senese does a masterful job traversing the inner hallways of diverse institutions as he slowly brings all these diverse elements together for a slam-bang climax... Peter Senese displays a wealth of knowledge of geopolitics, espionage and international finance, describing all the technical intricacies of the story's elements and implications with great attention to detail - without ever letting the pace get bogged down or become confusing to the reader.  He also keeps a number of secrets close to the vest, saving them for just the right time in the story.  This serves to make the book thoroughly believable and increasingly suspenseful. There's no shortage of action here.  What Tyler finds himself involved in is nothing less than a war, and he must fight to save not only himself, his friends and his company, but his very country from an unimaginable catastrophe.  The Father's network of agents and killers is as formidable as they come, and the security-related forces Tyler brings into the game are some of the best money can buy.  In the end though, the drama becomes deeply personal, as the Father and Tyler Boxter rush headlong toward a face-to-face encounter of epic proportions... Many a writer of thrillers seem to drop the ball somewhere in the middle of their novels, but Peter Senese's knowledge of geopolitics, international finance and 21st century terrorist threats keeps the fires of detailed complexity and story evolution stoked and red-hot for the entire ride.  Tyler Boxter is no James Bond, but Den Of The Assassin proves to be just as exciting as any 007 caper - and much more realistic."

Predators Games, which will be released soon, is the riveting sequel to The Den Of The Assassin.  It propels readers into the shocking and deadly world of alternative energy speculation and depicts the world's power-nations conspiring against one another in an extremely dangerous and potentially cataclysmic quest to control what was once the unthinkable unfolds as unique characters initially introduced in The Den Of The Assassin race into real and startling possibilities evolving around advances in alternatives energy and mankind's greed.

To learn more about Peter Senese and his various writings or child advocacy... or to order an autographed and dedicated copy of one of Peter's novels, please visit any of the following websites:

I CARE Foundation
The Official Website of Peter Senese
The Official Website of The Den Of The Assassin
The Official Website of Chasing The Cyclone

You can also purchase Peter's e-books at:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Peter Thomas Senese: North Korea Needs War To Sustain Its Myth

                                     The Den of the Assassin: North Korea's War-Monger
                                        Click here to order a copy of The Den of the Assassin

Many of us outside of those who are actively serving in the military or who have previously served in the armed forces appear to not be too worried about events taking place in North Korea as the isolated, notoriously secretive nation prepares to launch medium-rage missiles as the young toad's rhetoric of war-mongering escalates. 

Granted, North Korea is on the other side of the world from the United States and Canada, and perhaps the non-chalant attitude is because it is commonly believed that an attack by North Korea cannot reach our homeland.

Perhaps this is correct, but with over 1 Million active duty military, a strong-standing army, and in reality, very little to lose as that nation's economic and social platforms are near non-existent, war is not only a possibility but an economic and socially advantageous probability for North Korea.

Which means that our friends in South Korea and Japan are in trouble.

Distinctively, as much as the war-mongering little toad desires to capture the southern part of the divided penninsula (South Korea), his real goal appears to immortalize himself as another mythical leader.  And how can he achieve this?

By attacking the United States homeland as well as foreign military installations.

Last week the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported North Korea loaded two missiles onto mobile launchers; in response, South Korea sent destroyers to its northern neighbor's coast.

Immediately thereafter, the North Korean government also says it plans to restart a major nuclear reactor it shut down as part of an international deal five years ago. And leader Kim Jong-un ordered rockets readied to strike U.S. military bases in the Pacific, not to mention the U.S. mainland. (It's not clear that North Korea's missiles have that kind of range.)

Amid this brinksmanship, North Korea remains remarkably shut off from the rest of the world. Read on for what's known about the hermit country. [Nuclear Security: Best & Worst Countries (Infographic)]

As a novelist, I have had great interest and concern over North Korea and the dangers this nation presents to the free world. In my international espionage thriller 'The Den of the Assassin', I touched upon the grave realities that North Korea is a nation that needs to go to war because culturally, its leaders need to appear mythicize themselves.  In my upcoming novel 'Predators Games', North Korea and some of this nation's oddities are intricate themes in my historical fiction thriller that I hope will entertain and educate readers everywhere.




Here are a few things I find of great interest:

1. Isolation nation
The Korean peninsula has long been a battlefield for the world powers nearby. Japan controlled Korea (then one nation), until the end of World War II; after Japan's surrender, the United States and Soviet Union sliced the country along the 38th parallel, with the United States administering the south and the Soviet Union controlling the north.

This division became permanent after the United Nations failed to negotiate a reunification in 1948. The first president of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, declared a policy of "self-reliance," essentially shutting the nation off diplomatically and economically from the rest of the world.

It's a philosophy called iuche, or self-mastery. The idea is that the North Korean people must rely on themselves only. This philosophy, according to Kim Il Sung, required North Korea to maintain political and economic independence (even in the face of famine in the 1990s) and to create a strong national defense system.

2. Mythical leaders

North Korea's ruling dynasty has always cast itself as somewhat supernatural. Founder Kim Il Sung was known as Korea's "sun," and claimed control of the weather. Along with his son Kim Jong Il's birthday, Kim Il Sung's birthday is a national holiday. After his death, Sung was embalmed and still lies in state in Pyongyang.

Kim Jong Il's mythology is no less extensive. His birth was hailed as "heaven sent" by propagandists, and state media has often touted impossible feats: He scored a perfect 300 the first time he tried bowling, and shot five holes-in-one the first time he played golf. Upon his death in 2011, the skies about the sacred mountain Paektu in North Korea allegedly glowed red. [Supernatural Powers? Tales of 10 Historical Predictions]

Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il's son and successor has yet to have quite so many tall tales told about him, but the news media have described the new leader as "born of heaven" upon his ascension to head of state. In December 2012, North Korean state media declared the discovery of a lair supposedly belonging to a unicorn ridden by Tongmyong, the ancient mythical founder of Korea. The story wasn't an indication that North Koreans believe in literal unicorns, experts said, but a way to shore up Kim Jong Un's rule and North Korea's cred as the "real" Korea.

3. National prison
All the fanciful and funny myths about North Korea's dictators cover up a disturbing truth, however: Some 154,000 North Koreans live in prison camps, according to South Korean government estimates. (Other international bodies put the number at closer to 200,000). There are six camps, surrounded by electrified barbed wire. Two camps allow for some "rehabilitation" and release of prisoners, according to "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" (Viking, 2012). The rest are prisons for life.

"Escape from Camp 14" tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person known to have escaped from one of these camps and to have made it to the outside world. Shin was born in the camp; his father was imprisoned because his brother had abandoned North Korea for South Korea decades earlier.

Torture, malnutrition, slave labor and public execution are ways of life in the camps, which are known from satellite imagery. An Amnesty International report in 2011 estimated that 40 percent of camp prisoners die of malnutrition.

4. Daily life in North Korea
Given North Korea's secrecy, it's hard to imagine what daily life in the country is really like. In the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" (Spiegel & Grau, 2009), journalist Barbara Demick interviewed North Koreans who escaped to South Korea. They describe a society tied by family (during the famine of the 1990s, parents and grandparents starved first, trying to save food for their children) and inundated with propaganda.

"In the futuristic dystopia imagined in 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only color to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea," Demick writes.

It's not clear how many North Koreans buy into this propaganda. Interviews with North Koreans in China by the New York Times suggested that smuggled DVDs from South Korea have enabled average North Koreans to get a glimpse of the world outside their borders.

Very recently, foreign journalists on supervised trips in Pyongyang have been allowed 3G connections on mobile phones, enabling real-time pictures of daily city life.

5. Difficult adjustments
With such limited access to the outside world, North Koreans who do make it out often struggle to adjust. Many are paranoid, a skill that served them well at home where anyone could turn anyone else in to the police for saying the wrong thing. Some are cognitively impaired by early malnutrition. And few know anything about world history outside of North Korean propaganda.

"Education in North Korea is useless for life in South Korea," Gwak Jong-moon, principal of a boarding school for North Korean refugees, told Blaine Harden, the author of "Escape from Camp 14." "When you are too hungry, you don't go to learn and teachers don't go to teach. Many of our students have been hiding in China for years with no access to schools. As young children in North Korea, they grew up eating bark off trees and thinking it was normal."

According to Harden, the suicide rate for North Korean refugees in South Korea is two-and-a-half times that of the rate for South Koreans.

Click here to order a copy of The Den of the Assassin.  Remember, I continue to donate 100% of my e-book proceeds to the I CARE Foundation.

                                              THE DEN OF THE ASSASSIN - Trailer II 


Kindest regards to all,

Peter Thomas Senese

China's Cyber Warfare Attacks Against The United States Offers Glimpse Of Modern Day Global Battleground

The U.S. believes that cyber warfare could begin to threaten the underpinnings of its relationship with China, New York Times journalist David Sanger told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.

Sanger and two colleagues reported in the New York Times on Tuesday that a secretive unit of the People’s Liberation Army, the Chinese military, is responsible for most of the many Chinese cyber attacks on U.S. corporations and infrastructure.

As has been previously shared, the unit is called the 'Blue Army' and is supposedly made up of over 100,000 computer hackers - and may be as high as over 250,000 cyber warfare experts. 

The problems cyber warfare present are more than serious. At hand is the ability of rogue countries to possibly take control of another nation's weapons, cripple its electronic grid and infrastructure,and cause unthinkable fear and economic chaos. 

The New York Times Sanger said, “This is, diplomatically, I think one of the most complicated problems out there.  The fact that your adversary would know that you could get into their systems and turn them on or off at any time – whether it was cell phones or air traffic control or whatever – might well affect your future behavior. So it doesn’t mean that they’re going to do it, or there’s out-and-out war, but it does mean that they have a capability to do this by remote control.” Last month The New York Times reported the newspaper was the victim of Chinese hackers due to retribution for publishing a negative report on the finances of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

In reaction to the attack, the New York Times hired a leading cyber security technology firm, Mandiant, to investigate the attack.  Mandiant's investigation  followed the attack on The New York Times to a building solely occupied by the Chinese Military in Shanghai - where it is believed that a portion of the military's Blue Army is housed in the 12 story building. .

“It’s got thousands of people working in it,” Sanger said. His colleague, David Barboza visited the site, but was not allowed inside.

Of course the Chinese government hotly denies all the allegations in the Mandiant report, citing the investigation as“baseless,” “irresponsible and unprofessional.” Of course, in the same breath, China then accused the United States of conducting cyber warfare and electronic espionage.

Chad Sweet, the former Chief of Staff of the Homeland Security and a former CIA offiica who is the Managing partner of the high-profile global security firm the Chertoff Group, told CNN"s Amanpour. “We’re essentially facing a new Cold War – a cyber Cold War. “The destructive capacity is equal to that of a nuclear warhead… But what makes it more sinister than the nuclear age is that there’s no easily identifiable plume.”


With respect to the possibilities of a direct attach by China against the United States, Sweet said he did not think China would “pull the trigger” unless its “back was up against the wall” – for example if the U.S. threatened China’s claim over Taiwan.

Is there a build-up by all the world's formidable nations?  Yes.

In fact, as Sanger pointed out, “That is how the U.S. got into the Iranian nuclear program.” (though the operation has been heavily credited to Israel's activities and refers to the Stuxnet computer virus that was launched last year).

Because of the nature of these programs, it is impossible to verify the extent or intent of either the U.S. or China’s cyber warfare or capability.

Sanger said that during his reporting on the Stuxnet virus, he learned of a prescient Situation Room meeting early in the Obama administration. “President Obama said to some of his aides in the Situation Room several years ago,” Sanger recounted, “that he was worried that once the U.S. went down this road, other countries might use it as a pretense to launch their own attacks, presumably not with the discipline and the rules the U.S. has. Well I think that’s probably pretty much exactly what’s happened.”

The Following report was issued by the Christian Science Monitor. I think it is worth sharing:

A stunning report by a US digital-security company accuses China’s military of conducting more than 100 cyberattacks on American corporate and government computers. If accurate, the report by the firm Mandiant only adds to the urgency to develop international norms in cyberwar and cyberespionage.

Each new tool of aggression requires its own rules of war. Cyberwarfare should be no different. Without a code of ethics for conflict in the digital universe, nations could eventually bring down each other’s water supplies, electric grids, military defenses, and vital institutions. And key values, such as privacy and a right to intellectual property, could also be lost.

Global rules now restrict the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. They also help safeguard civilians and prisoners of war. What the Mandiant report shows is that the world may be losing the struggle to come up with rules for cyberspace behavior.

The scale of the Chinese cyberthreat is now so massive that it might lead to a rush to imitate rather than a campaign to prevent a cyber blow-for-blow. One of the unusual aspects of cyberweapons is that once they are used, they can be easily replicated for a return attack.

RELATED OPINION: Iran's view on global cyber rules

 

Coming up with such rules will not be easy. For starters, simply defining what is a cyberweapon or a cyberattack could be a problem. Even if that issue is settled, how can an attack’s originator be correctly identified? And given the speed of digital technology, the distinction between defensive and offensive capabilities can be easily blurred.

“You have to have an offensive mind-set to better focus on defense,” said retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright recently in a discussion on cyberwarfare at the US Naval Institute.
Current rules of war under the Geneva Conventions and the International Committee of the Red Cross may cover some aspects of cyberwar, but not all. The United Nations and other global bodies need to make such rules clear.

Even within the United States, Congress and President Obama cannot agree on rules for national defense against cyberattacks. An attempt to pass a law last year that would have required companies to cooperate with the government in cybersecurity ran into concerns over civil liberties.
As a result, Mr. Obama issued an executive order last week offering incentives for companies to improve data sharing with the government. The aim is to protect vital infrastructure now run by private firms.

MONITOR'S VIEW: For Obama's second term, a call to arms control

Like the current US policy on clandestine drone strikes against terrorists, Obama is moving toward a legal presumption of executive authority in being able to launch cyberattacks without approval by Congress or legal oversight by a court. If he does assume such powers, it raises a difficult constitutional issue that needs public debate.

Nations have a strong record of creating norms that restrain types of warfare. Before more reports of cyberattacks emerge, the world must see a common interest in rules to prevent cyberwar.

Is China Declaring War On The United States

A secretive Chinese military unit is believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks, according to U.S. computer security company Mandiant.  Of course the Chinese government strongly denied the accusation, and then attempted to turn around the accusation by stating that China was in fact the victim of U.S. hacking.

Now those of you who have read my novel 'The Den of the Assassin' have learned a few things about cyber-warfare, and how the real world military threat is not going to be between foot soldiers, but will be fought in cyber war, where countries can realistically attempt to use one nation's own military weapons against themselves by taking control of the weapons when they are deployed.  An unconfirmed example of this is when the Iran military is believed to have landed a U.S. Drone on Iran's soil.

But there is so much more at stake, and part of China's end-game is to remove the United States dollar as the world currency. 

How could they accomplish this?

By shaken the financial infrastructure of America's banking and commerce centers vial cyber warfare, that's how.

Imagine if the United States Federal Reserve gets hacked into, or several of our largest banks for that matter?

What if our national grid gets shut down?

If you think this is not possible, then you better think again.

The truth of the matter is that nations such as China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, and others have sizeable military personnel units (tens of thousands in the case of China's 'Blue Army') dedicated to cyber-warfare.

Now, the United States is far from sitting ideal; however, the reality is that if the Chinese government had their military cyberware units attack American companies on American soil, then sadly, we are very much at war.

                                          Is China Declaring War On The United States?
                                     

                                                      Special Mandiant Video Report


The following was issued by Rueters:

The company, Mandiant, identified the People's Liberation Army's Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely driving force behind the hacking. Mandiant said it believed the unit had carried out "sustained" attacks on a wide range of industries.

 
"The nature of 'Unit 61398's' work is considered by China to be a state secret; however, we believe it engages in harmful 'Computer Network Operations'," Mandiant said in a report released in the United States on Monday.
 
"It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively," it said.
 
China's Defense Ministry issued a flat denial of the accusations and called them "unprofessional". It said hacking attacks are a global problem and that China is one of world's biggest victims of cyber assaults.
 
"The Chinese army has never supported any hacking activity," the Defense Ministry said in a brief faxed statement to Reuters. "Statements about the Chinese army engaging in cyber attacks are unprofessional and not in line with facts."
 
Unit 61398 is located in Shanghai's Pudong district, China's financial and banking hub, and is staffed by perhaps thousands of people proficient in English as well as computer programming and network operations, Mandiant said in its report.
 
The unit had stolen "hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as 2006", it said.
 
Most of the victims were located in the United States, with smaller numbers in Canada and Britain. The information stolen ranged from details on mergers and acquisitions to the emails of senior employees, the company said.
 
The 12-storey building, which houses the unit, sits in an unassuming residential area and is surrounded by a wall adorned with military propaganda photos and slogans; outside the gate a sign warns members of the public they are in a restricted military area and should not take pictures.
There were no obvious signs of extra security on Tuesday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the government firmly opposed hacking, adding that it doubted the evidence provided in the U.S. security group's report.

"Hacking attacks are transnational and anonymous. Determining their origins are extremely difficult. We don't know how the evidence in this so-called report can be tenable," spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.

"Arbitrary criticism based on rudimentary data is irresponsible, unprofessional and not helpful in resolving the issue."

Hong cited a Chinese study which pointed to the United States as being behind hacking in China.
"Of the above mentioned Internet hacking attacks, attacks originating from the United States rank first."

"ECONOMIC CYBER ESPIONAGE"

Some experts said they doubted Chinese government denials.

"The PLA plays a key role in China's multi-faceted security strategy, so it makes sense that its resources would be used to facilitate economic cyber espionage that helps the Chinese economy," said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer and co-founder of CrowdStrike, one of Mandiant's competitors.

Though privately held and little known to the general public, Mandiant is one of a handful of U.S. cyber-security companies that specialize in attempting to detect, prevent and trace the most advanced hacking attacks, instead of the garden-variety viruses and criminal intrusions that befoul corporate networks on a daily basis.

But Mandiant does not promote its analysis in public and only rarely issues topical papers about changes in techniques or behaviors.

It has never before given the apparent proper names of suspected hackers or directly tied them to a military branch of the Chinese government, giving the new report special resonance.

The company published details of the attack programs and dummy websites used to infiltrate U.S. companies, typically via deceptive emails.

U.S. officials have complained in the past to China about sanctioned trade-secret theft, but have had a limited public record to point to.

Mandiant said it knew the PLA would shift tactics and programs in response to its report but concluded that the disclosure was worth it because of the scale of the harm and the ability of China to issue denials in the past and duck accountability.

The company traced Unit 61398's presence on the Internet - including registration data for a question-and-answer session with a Chinese professor and numeric Internet addresses within a block assigned to the PLA unit - and concluded that it was a major contributor to operations against the U.S. companies.

Members of Congress and intelligence authorities in the United States have publicized the same general conclusions: that economic espionage is an official mission of the PLA and other elements of the Chinese government, and that hacking is a primary method.

In November 2011, the U.S. National Counterintelligence Executive publicly decried China in particular as the biggest known thief of U.S. trade secrets.

The Mandiant report comes a week after U.S. President Barack Obama issued a long-awaited executive order aimed at getting the private owners of power plants and other critical infrastructure to share data on attacks with officials and to begin to follow consensus best practices on security.
Both U.S. Democrats and Republicans have said more powerful legislation is needed, citing Chinese penetration not just of the largest companies but of operations essential to a functioning country, including those comprising the electric grid.

                                      China Accuses The United States of Cyber Warfare

The reality of cyber warfare is upon us.  There is real cause for concern.  Fortunately, the United States has not ignored these threats.

Russia Prepares For Massive 'War Games' Exercise Showcasing New Nuclear Submarines

The Russian navy on Thursday hoisted its flag on a new nuclear powered submarine intended to form a key part of the country's future nuclear deterrent. It is part of an ambitious weapons modernization effort that comes as the military is preparing for a naval exercise off Syria's shores.

 

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the war games in the Mediterranean will be the biggest such exercise since Soviet times and involve ships from all four Russian fleets. The maneuvers have been seen as a demonstration of Russian naval power and a show of support for an old ally, whom Moscow has shielded from international sanctions.

Shoigu made the statement after commissioning the new Yury Dolgoruky nuclear submarine, which carries 16 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is the first of a new series of Borei-class submarines that will replace older Soviet-built ships. Another submarine of the same type is currently undergoing sea trials and two others are now under construction.

President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Yuri Dolgoruky's crew during a conference call Thursday, hailing the ship as a "powerful weapon that will guarantee our security."

"Submarines of that class will become an important element of sea-based strategic forces, a guarantor of global balance and security of Russia and its allies," Putin said.

Commissioning of the new submarines is part of an ambitious arms modernization program that envisages spending over 20 trillion rubles ($657 billion) on new weapons through 2020.

Putin said Thursday that 4 trillion rubles ($132 billion) of that money will be spent on commissioning the new submarines and other navy ships. "Modernization of the navy is one of the most important priorities in our work to strengthen the armed forces," he said.

Putin said the navy will commission the total of eight Borei-class ICBM nuclear submarines and eight nuclear submarines of a different Yasen class intended to hunt for enemy ships.

The construction of the Yuri Dolgoruky, named after a medieval Russian prince who founded Moscow, began in 1995 but was slowed down by a post-Soviet economic meltdown and it wasn't until 2009 when it finally entered sea trials. The submarine's commissioning was delayed further by problems with the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile intended to arm it.

The Bulava experienced a string of failures during tests that dragged on for years, raising doubts about the future of the most expensive military project in Russia's post-Soviet history. Recent tests, however, have been successful, allowing the navy to finally commission the submarine.

Shoigu, who attended the commissioning of the new submarine at a shipyard in Severodvinsk, said that the Bulava is fully combat ready.

Facing questions about Bulava, Putin's chief of staff Sergei Ivanov also insisted that "the navy has no reason to doubt its reliability."

A hawkish Russian Cabinet member marked the ceremony with a tongue-in-cheek comment mimicking the Cold War-era diatribes of Soviet leaders. "You bourgeoisie tremble! You are screwed!" Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of military industries, wrote on Twitter.

Rogozin, a nationalist politician in the past, has been known for his bellicose and sometimes crude statements.

All this said, it would be foolish to think the Cold War is over.  It is not.