By Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia's new strategic&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;submarine, the Imperator Alexander III, has successfully&nbsp;tested a&nbsp;Bulava&nbsp;intercontinental&nbsp;ballistic&nbsp;missile, the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;defence ministry said on Sunday.
The&nbsp;missile, which the Federation of American Scientists says is designed to carry up to six&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;warheads, was launched from an underwater position in the White Sea off Russia's northern coast and hit a target thousands of kilometres away on the Kamchatka peninsula in the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;Far East, the defence ministry said.
"Firing a ballistic&nbsp;missile&nbsp;is the final element of state&nbsp;tests, after which a decision will be made to accept the cruiser into the Navy," a ministry statement said.
The Imperator Alexander III is the seventh of the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;Project 955 Borei (Arctic Wind) class&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;submarines and the fourth of the modernised Borei-A variant, according to&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;sources.
They are known in NATO as the Dolgoruky class of&nbsp;submarines, after the first boat - the Yuri Dolgoruky - became the first new generation of&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;submarine&nbsp;launched by Russia since the Cold War.
The Borei class&nbsp;submarine&nbsp;is armed with 16&nbsp;Bulava&nbsp;missiles. The 12-metre (40-foot)&nbsp;missile&nbsp;has a range of about 8,000 km (5,000 miles).
Since rising to power in 1999, President Vladimir Putin has increased military spending and sought to rebuild Russia's&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;and conventional forces after the chaos that accompanied the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
The Ukraine war has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the depths the Cold War and Putin last month said he was not ready to say whether or not Russia should resume&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;testing.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview aired on Sunday that relations with the United States were below zero.
"Relations are at zero - or I would say below zero," Peskov said, though he added that at some point the leaders of Russia and the United States would have to resume contact.
"Putin has repeatedly stated that he is ready for any contacts," Peskov said.
Russia aims to build a total of 10 to 12 Borei-class&nbsp;submarines to be divided between the Northern and Pacific fleets, according to the current plans disclosed by&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;media.
Three more Borei-class&nbsp;submarines are being built: the Knyaz Pozharsky, the Dmitry Donskoy and the Knyaz Potemkin. Two additional boats are also planned, according to&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;media.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Guy Faulconbridge in MoscowEditing by William Mallard and David Goodman)

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Russian nuclear submarine test launches Bulava intercontinental missile