Putin allows high-tech gun that hits nervous system

London, April 1 (IANS) Russian president-elect Vladimir Putin has given the go-ahead to a gun that uses electromagnetic radiation to attack a victims' central nervous system, a British media report said.

The "psychotronic" can effectively turn people into zombies -- a dead person that can be given the semblance of life and controlled at will.

The futuristic weapons developed by Russian scientists could be used against enemies and Russian dissidents, the Daily Mail reported.

Sources said Putin described the guns as "entirely new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals".

"Such high-tech weapons systems will be comparable in effect to nuclear weapons, but will be more acceptable in terms of political and military ideology," he was quoted as saying.

Precise details of the gun have not been revealed. But previous research has shown that low-frequency waves can affect brain cells, alter psychological states and make it possible to transmit commands directly into someone's thought processes.

High doses of microwaves can damage the functioning of internal organs, control behaviour or even drive victims to suicide.

Plans to introduce the weapons were announced recently by Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

"The development of weaponry based on new physics principles -- direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, and so on -- is part of the state arms procurement programme for 2011-2020," Serdyukov said.