Did Russia accidentally reveal plans for giant nuclear torpedo - or was leak deliberate?

Details of a new Russian submarine-launched nuclear torpedo have been shown on state-controlled TV, a secret the Kremlin said should never have been aired. Some observers, however, saw it as a deliberate leak.

The airing of the video on television channels under tight Kremlin control raised suspicions that it was done intentionally to scare the West at a time when its ties with Russia are at the lowest point since the Cold War.

NTV and Channel One showed a large document — filmed over a general's shoulder during a meeting with Putin — with drawings and details of a prospective weapons system called Status-6.

The system developed by St Petersburg-based Rubin design bureau includes nuclear submarines carrying massive long-range underwater drones shaped like torpedoes, which could create “extensive zones of radioactive contamination” that would make enemy coastal areas “unsuitable for military, economic, business or other activity for a long time,” the document said.

The channels later removed the footage, which was shot during a meeting on Monday in Sochi.

“It's true that some secret information was caught by the camera and therefore it was subsequently removed,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said late Wednesday. “We hope this will not happen again.”