Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday injected humour into his annual televised press conference after being asked about interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS and conspiracy theories linking it to extraterrestrial technology. Responding to a question from a journalist, Putin jokingly described the celestial object as “Russia’s secret weapon,” triggering laughter across the packed hall.

Smiling, the Russian leader quipped that "I will let you in on something, but it must stay between us because it’s classified information. This is our secret weapon, but we will only use it as a last resort."

Putin Dismisses Alien Theories

Shifting to a serious tone, Putin dismissed claims that 3I/ATLAS could be an artificial object or spacecraft. He said Russian scientists and space agencies were fully aware of the phenomenon and had been closely monitoring it. “Seriously, though, it’s a comet,” Putin said, explaining that the object originated outside the solar system. According to him, comets from other star systems behave differently from those formed within the Milky Way due to variations in structure and composition.

He noted that as 3I/ATLAS moves closer to the Sun, distinct physical processes occur on its surface, including visible changes such as elongation of its tail. These effects, he said, were natural and well understood by scientists.

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Addressing public concerns, Putin emphasised that the interstellar visitor posed no danger to Earth. To put things into perspective, he pointed out that while the Moon is around 400,000 kilometres away, 3I/ATLAS was approximately 259 million kilometres from Earth during its closest approach. “At such a distance, it does not pose any threat,” he said, adding that the comet would continue on its trajectory, passing near Jupiter before eventually exiting the solar system.

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Putin’s remarks came during the annual year-end press conference, a marathon event that lasted nearly four hours. Around 2.5 million questions were submitted for the 2025 edition, covering topics ranging from the economy and infrastructure to internet restrictions and daily hardships.