The president oversaw by video link the launch of the Angara-A5 from Plesetsk in northern Russia at 0557 GMT, saying the new rocket would allow the country better protection.
"Indeed, for our space industry and I suppose for the whole of Russia this is a major, very important event," Putin said from the Kremlin.
"Russia remains one of the internationally recognized leaders in space exploration."
Putin said that Russia will over the next five years conduct a series of test-launches for the Angara - which is designed for civilian and military use, including the launch of manned spacecraft.
The Kremlin said the Angara - named after a Siberian river flowing out of Lake Baikal - was expected to launch a payload of two tonnes into space.
A locomotive pulled the huge white rocket out of a hangar in footage released by the defence ministry, with personnel bundled up against the cold.
Designed to succeed Proton and other Soviet-era launchers, the Angara is billed as the first rocket to have been completely built after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Putin said that the next-generation spacecraft was more environmentally friendly than its predecessors because it is fuelled by oxygen and kerosene rather than hugely toxic heptyl.
The Khrunichev Center, the state-run spacecraft maker which developed the rocket, said the launch was performed by the aerospace defence forces.
Comment: This latest Russian space success, together with that of their BRICS allies earlier this year (India's maiden Mars mission successful and China's first mission to moon and back) is in direct contrast to their Western counterparts; who have suffered various anomalies, in a shockingly bad year for their space dominance. Symbolic perhaps?
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