Russia wants to strengthen its presence in the Arctic, where it considers the United States to be the main threat
In order to reinforce his fleet, President Vladimir Putin announced this Sunday, the National Day of the Russian Navy, a new naval strategic doctrine that will intensify the activities of his ships in the Black Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and through the which in the coming months will be incorporated next-generation hypersonic missiles. The document, according to the Russian agency Interfax, has been conceived in the face of the “threat” represented by “the plans of the United States to dominate the oceans and shipping lines.”
The Arctic is “becoming a region of international competition, not only from an economic point of view, but also from a military point of view,” the doctrine underlines. For this reason, Moscow will increase security in the waters adjacent to its country – with special intensity in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, where it wants to develop a “comprehensive strengthening of its position” – as well as in the eastern Mediterranean and the straits of the the Black Sea, the Baltic and the Kuril Islands (the latter are the protagonists of the dispute between Russia, which intends to carry out military exercises in the archipelago, and China, which insists that such operations not be carried out).
Putin also plans to intensify maritime exercises in the Arctic to increase its ability to respond to “military activity by foreign states in the waters of the Northern Sea Route.” It also plans to expand the military infrastructure in Crimea, annexed in 2014, as well as the construction of new aircraft carriers and a system for the incorporation of the latest generation Zirkon hypersonic missile, which will enter service in the coming months in the frigate ‘Admiral Gorshkov’.
With this plan, in which the lack of Russian bases abroad is recognized as a strategic weakness, Moscow intends to “build new points to serve the Navy in the Asia-Pacific region and the Mediterranean Sea.”
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