Login

 

Forgot password?
submarines shipbuilding Black Sea Fleet exercise Pacific Fleet Russian Navy Northern Fleet strategy cooperation Ukraine visits Russia piracy missiles trials Sevastopol history Sevmash presence contracts drills Baltic Fleet industry incident anti-piracy shipyards training Gulf of Aden frigate Somalia India developments reforms opinion Borei procurements policy Russia - India aircraft carrier Crimea arms exports USA St. Petersburg tests France financing Bulava Yury Dolgoruky Serdiukov US Navy Mediterranean cruise Zvezdochka NATO innovations Indian Navy United Shipbuilding Corporation Medvedev Arctic agreements commission Admiralteyskie Verfi Admiral Gorshkov Vladivostok Mistral accident hijacking corvettes overhaul Admiral Kuznetsov anniversary Russia - France Rosoboronexport Vysotsky ceremony event Yantar Severomorsk defense order negotiations aircraft conflict China deployment naval aviation Putin investigations Black Sea Varyag coast guard Novorossiysk Vikramaditya landing craft Far East marines crime Severnaya Verf meeting scandals memorials Syria traditions South Korea statistics Japan escort Neustrashimy Yasen tenders Admiral Chabanenko Marshal Shaposhnikov convoys Ukrainian Navy problems Severodvinsk Chirkov reinforcement tension tragedy firings technology Almaz Moskva search and rescue Caspian Flotilla frontier service upgrade provocation Baltic Sea hostages court keel laying Turkey Dmitry Donskoy rumors Admiral Panteleyev Atalanta shipwreck helicopters Kilo class Petr Veliky World War II death Kaliningrad Norway Rubin Admiral Vinogradov launching patrols Russia-Norway
Search
Our friends russian navy weapons world sailing ships
 
Tell a friend Print version

Beefing up Arctic presence among top priorities for Russian military, says Putin

12/11/2013 
Text: Toronto Sta
Photo: Toronto Sta, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Expanding Russia's military presence in the Arctic region is among the top priorities for the nation's armed forces, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.

Speaking at a meeting with the top military brass, Putin said that Russia is "intensifying the development of that promising region" and needs to have "every lever for the protection of its security and national interests there."

He emphasized the importance of the Soviet-era base at the New Siberian Islands, which the military started to overhaul this year. Russian officials have described the facility as key for protecting shipping routes that link Europe with the Pacific region across the Arctic Ocean.

Putin also said that Russia will restore a number of Arctic military air bases that fell into neglect after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway have all been trying to assert jurisdiction over parts of the Arctic, which is believed to hold up to a quarter of the planet's undiscovered oil and gas. In 2007, Russia staked a symbolic claim to the Arctic seabed by dropping a canister containing the Russian flag on the ocean floor fr om a small submarine at the North Pole.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the military next year will form a dedicated group of forces in the Arctic to protect Russia's national interests in the region.

Shoigu added that the Russian armed forces would also work to expand their presence elsewhere.

He said that the Russian navy will continue to maintain its permanent presence in the Mediterranean, which was restored this year for the first time since Cold War times. Until recently, the Russian navy only made sporadic visits to the area, but it now has a rotating squadron of ships in the Mediterranean.

Russia has been a key protector and ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the deployment was part of efforts to project its power.

Shoigu said that Russian forces on the far eastern Sakhalin Island were also beefed up this year. Next year, Russia will set up an air base in its neighbour and ally, Belarus, wh ere a regiment of fighter jets will be permanently based, he said. Putin, elected to a third presidential term in 2012, has sought to revive Russia's Soviet-era clout and military might amid a strain in relations with the United States over the U.S.-led NATO missile shield and other disputes.

He reaffirmed on Tuesday his position that the U.S. missile shield would damage the strategic balance. Russia has described the missile defence as a threat to its nuclear deterrent and rejected U.S. assurances that it isn't aimed against Russian forces.

Putin said that the massive effort to modernize Russia's military arsenals will continue next year, when the military will commission more than 40 intercontinental ballistic missiles, more than 200 military aircraft and two nuclear submarines, among other weapons.

Back to the news list