the Norway Spiral event of 9 December, 2009

One should bear in mind that Russia has over 50 years of tested and proven missile launch, navigation and targeting technology incorporated into its missile fleet ... so the continuous failures of well understood and trialled launch technology is somewhat inexplicable. Also consider the fact that the Bulava missile series is a derivative of the highly successful Topol M missile series and one would expect the experience and technology that created the Topols would be incorporated into the Bulava series ... the Bulava's were NOT created from scratch.
Also Russia has made known publicly that the Bulava series will have unprecedented features and abilities, the most notable being its ability to perform evasive maneuvering, mid-course countermeasures, decoys and a warhead fully shielded against both physical and electromagnetic pulse damage. In fact, the Bulava is designed to be capable of surviving a nuclear blast at a minimum distance of 500 metres.

So, would it be not inconceivable for Russia to try to divert global attention away from any new technology testing by claiming multiple and successive failures in something as elementary as the solid fueled propulsion system ? Would public amusement and ridicule be worth the price to pay for the ability to covertly test radical new technology with almost minimal scrutiny ?

I think so ....

[Edit: to show a space view perspective of what the spiral event may have looked like if viewed from above the atmosphere.
Note that I have scaled the spirals so that the exhaust/plume is in alignment with the launch site point; and that each individual spiral event centre corresponds with the trajectory points marked on the White Sea launch area.