Moscow ? Russia’s nuclear forces reportedly are preparing their largest maneuvers in two decades, an exercise involving the test-firing of missiles and flights by dozens of bombers in a massive simulation of an all-out nuclear war.

President Vladimir Putin is expected to personally oversee the maneuvers, which are apparently aimed at demonstrating the revival of the nation’s military might and come ahead of Russian elections in March.

The business newspaper Kommersant said the exercise was set for mid-February and would closely resemble a 1982 Soviet exercise dubbed the “seven-hour nuclear war” that put the West on edge.

Official comments on the upcoming exercise have been sketchy. The chief of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, Col.-Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, was quoted by the Interfax-Military News Agency as saying the planned maneuvers would involve several launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in various regions of Russia, but he wouldn’t give further details.

In Washington, the State Department said it had seen reports that Russia has plans to conduct the exercises in February. The department also said Russia was obliged to notify the United States 24 hours before a missile test and had done so in the past.

Kommersant said the maneuvers would involve strategic bombers test-firing cruise missiles over the northern Atlantic. Analysts describe such an exercise as an imitation of a nuclear attack on the United States.

Russia’s system warning of an enemy missile attack and a missile defense system protecting Moscow will also be involved in the exercise, it added.

Ivan Safranchuk, head of the Moscow office of the Center for Defense Information, a Washington-based think-tank, said the maneuvers would further strengthen Putin’s popularity ahead of the March 14 presidential election he is expected to win easily.