Russia is expanding its military infrastructure along the border with Finland and stockpiling newly manufactured tanks, which analysts say could be preparation for future aggression against NATO. This warning comes from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), reports News.bg.
On April 27, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Western military and intelligence sources, that Russia is expanding its military bases near Petrozavodsk, in the Republic of Karelia, and is modernizing the railway and transport infrastructure along its western border with NATO countries.
The publication reveals that the Kremlin plans to build a new army headquarters near Petrozavodsk in the coming years. In parallel, Russia is integrating transport arteries in the Moscow Military District with those in Belarus, creating a network for faster military mobilization.
It is also reported that existing brigades in the Leningrad Military District will be restructured into divisions. In this context, new barracks, training grounds and warehouses and railways in the region are being built.
According to a senior Finnish military official, Russia is hardly sending its newly manufactured tanks to Ukraine, but is storing them for “later use”. ISW emphasizes that the reconstruction of the Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts is part of a broader long-term effort to prepare for a possible future conventional military conflict with NATO.
At the same time, the Russian authorities are preparing an update of their National Security Strategy. According to a statement by Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu on April 24, the new strategy will take into account the “crisis of European security“, the new global order and the growing challenges facing Russia. The strategy is updated every five years, with the last revision being made in 2021.
In parallel, the Kremlin continues to use the topic of peace talks with Ukraine as a means of pressure. On April 27, the Russian Foreign Ministry published an excerpt from a telephone conversation between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in which the two allegedly discussed “prerequisites for negotiations“. However, the State Department report does not mention such an agreement.
From June 2024 Since then, Russia has continued to set extremely unacceptable conditions for the start of negotiations - including the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, as well as Ukraine's refusal to join NATO through constitutional change.
On April 28, Lavrov reiterated these demands in an interview with the Brazilian publication O Globo, stating that any solution to the conflict must address the "root causes" of it. Russia is demanding that the international community recognize the illegally annexed Ukrainian territories as part of its state and that the West return frozen Russian assets.
The Kremlin continues to justify its aggression with allegations of discrimination against the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine - rhetoric that Moscow has used since the beginning of the invasion of Crimea in 2014.