Moscow ? Russia successfully tested a space vehicle that could lead to weapons capable of penetrating missile defenses, a senior general said Thursday. He insisted the device was not meant to counter U.S. efforts to develop an anti-missile shield.

Analysts said the device might be part of a campaign to bolster Russia’s global clout and burnish President Vladimir Putin’s image ahead of March elections he is expected to win. It could also be an effort to restore prestige to the country’s military, which has suffered near collapse since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, gave few details about the device tested Wednesday, but said it was a hypersonic vehicle — one that moves at more than five times the speed of sound — that could maneuver in orbit.

A weapon based on the craft could use that maneuverability to dodge missile defense systems, he said.

“The flying vehicle changed both altitude and direction of its flight,” Baluyevsky said at a news conference. “During the experiment conducted yesterday, we have proven that it’s possible to develop weapons that would make any missile defense useless.”

The Russian news Web site www.gazeta.ru, citing unnamed General Staff officials, said the vehicle was a warhead with engines that would direct it as it approached a target, rather than going into free fall.

Phil Coyle, a senior adviser to the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said Russia had been working on such a system for years and “it would not be surprising if they finally succeeded.”

Baluyevsky’s statement followed Putin’s claims a day earlier that Russia could build unrivaled new strategic weapons. Putin made the statements during military exercises that were described as the largest in more than 20 years.

Russia’s announcement comes after Washington withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 to develop a missile shield. After fervently protesting the plans, Russia was quiet when the United States abandoned the treaty, though U.S.-Russian relations have soured again lately.