Barguzin, the project to develop a rail-mobile ICBM, appears to have been cancelled again - according to a source in the defense industry, quoted in the Russian press, the program has been closed, "at least for the time being."

This is not the first time the program was said to be cancelled, only to be resurrected. It began in 2013, apparently as a MITT own project with some support from the Strategic Rocket Forces. It got a green light in 2014, but then people started having doubts and a in the early 2016 the word got out that the program is about to be terminated.

That didn't stop the MITT, though and the designers pressed on with the project, probably hoping to reverse that decision once they demonstrate that the system works. [UPDATE: I am being told that MITT, in fact, is rather skeptical about the project and the initiative comes from the military.] On November 1, 2016 the MITT conducted an ejection test of the missile at the Plesetsk test site. It got to the point where the industry source (probably MITT) suggested that the first flight tests of Barguzin will begin in 2019. That probably won't happen, but it is quite possible that the project will come back again. We'll see.