Eight metres long and weighing 25 tonnes, a replica of the so-called Tsar Bomb, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, has gone on display for the first time in Russia, in the midst of an ongoing standoff with the West over Ukraine. Tested in 1961 by the Soviet Union, the hydrogen bomb — also known as the AN602 — instilled a mix of pride and fear in retired military pilot Nikolay Krylov as he looked at the replica housed at an exhibition centre near the Kremlin. ‘When I come near it, I’m uncomfortable because I think of all the destruction it could have done,’ the 62-year-old said. This symbol of the Cold War nuclear arms race is being showcased to mark 70 years of Russian nuclear history, as the nation’s ties with the West remain strained by its 2014 annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine and its alleged support for separatist rebels. In May, NATO condemned Russia’s ‘nuclear sabre-rattling’ after Moscow announced plans to deploy nuclear-

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