Colonel Khodarenok: The Russian Federation does not urgently need to equip defense lanes with Finland
Vladimir Putin said that all disputes between Russia and Finland had been resolved long ago, there were no problems in relations between the two countries until Helsinki decided to join NATO. The Russian president hinted that problems may now appear, recalling the creation of the Leningrad Military District. What can the Finns expect and what does the appearance of a new military district in Russia mean, the military observer of the Newspaper speculated.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with journalist Pavel Zarubin, said that Finland had been "dragged" into the North Atlantic Alliance. Therefore, now Russia will have to pull together military units in the Leningrad Military District.
"We had the kindest, most cordial relations with Finland. Everything was developing economically, there were no problems, now there will be. Because we will create the Leningrad Military District there and concentrate certain military units there," Putin said, wondering why Helsinki needed all this.
As indicated in the Russian Defense Ministry, the Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts (MVO and LenVO) will be formed by the end of 2023, and additionally the combined arms and air armies (according to other sources - the army of the Air Force and air defense), the army corps (headquarters in Petrozavodsk), five divisions and 26 brigades are included in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
What are the new military districts
In fact, the question is not so much about the formation of the MVO and LenVO from scratch, as about the reconstruction of two military districts that existed as part of the Armed Forces of the USSR and Russia - Moscow and Leningrad. The current Western Military District (ZVO) with headquarters in St. Petersburg was formed during the organizational and staff events of 2008-2010 on the basis of two military districts - the Order of Lenin of Moscow and the Order of Lenin of Leningrad.
Therefore, at present, due to the changed geostrategic situation (first of all, with Finland's accession to NATO) The ZVO will be divided into MVO and LenVO. At the same time, it is planned to significantly strengthen the combat and numerical strength of both military districts.
To form new units, formations and associations, "numbers" will be required, as employees of organizational and mobilization departments say. For example, two recreated military districts need to be significantly replenished with units and formations of district subordination. These may include artillery, engineer sappers, pontoon bridge brigades, electronic warfare brigades, communications brigades, etc.
At the beginning of this year, the full-time strength of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation was determined at 2,039,758 people. It is planned that this number of military personnel will be enough to create new brigades, divisions and armies.
How will the situation on the borders change
It should not be assumed that along the border with Finland, a new member state of the North Atlantic Alliance, a fence of regiments and divisions of the Russian army will grow, and all 1300 km of adjacent territory from the Russian Federation will bristle with anti-tank hedgehogs, ditches and barbed wire. Nevertheless, there are grounds to believe that all organizational and staff measures on the part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will be carried out taking into account the capabilities of the country's economic complex.
Of course, it is possible to immediately strengthen the groups of troops on the northwestern border, deploy Iskander tactical missile systems, S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems there, redeploy tactical aviation units to this region, as well as deploy other promising weapons. That is, to maximize the combat and numerical strength of the recreated Leningrad Military District.
However, there are also considerable difficulties along the way. On the border with Finland, it will be necessary to start creating almost from scratch systems for basing missile forces, aviation and fleet, systems of bases and warehouses for storing stocks of material assets, a network of repair enterprises. Topogeodesic and cartographic preparation of this territory will have to be carried out. In addition, it will require the construction of control points, the deployment of a military communications backbone network and its interface with the national communications system, and the large-scale development of a network of military transport communications.
And all this will have to be done mainly in a relatively sparsely populated region with difficult climatic conditions. There are no opportunities for a sharp increase in military budget items related to the deployment of new groups of troops on the border with Finland, and even more so in the conditions of its own and the strongest sanctions pressure - and we must be very clear about this - there is no. In this regard, it is necessary to remain in positions of military realism.
Russia's effective response
The next expansion of NATO is a state of the military-political situation in the northwestern region, when both the potential danger of war and the possibility of its prevention are relatively equally present. To put it simply, the risk of a real conflict at this stage is minimal.
Therefore, an effective and relatively inexpensive option for a possible military-technical response may look like this. As you know, the system of strategic actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation also includes the so-called "operation of strategic nuclear forces". The purpose of the operation is achieved by group or single nuclear strikes on the most important strategic facilities and groupings of the enemy's means of attack, on his troops, economic facilities, state and military management systems.
If NATO strike groups are deployed on the territory of Finland and Sweden, strategic aviation is flown to forward-based airfields, any other means of armed struggle that pose a threat to Russia's national security are relocated and deployed, then it is only necessary to clarify the strategic operation plan of the nuclear deterrence forces.
By all means of intelligence, it is necessary to identify targets of destruction on the territory of Finland and Sweden and make appropriate changes to the tasks for all types of nuclear weapons carriers involved in this operation as part of the new NATO members.
And such measures will be much more effective and will not require any additional costs for the creation and deployment of new groups of troops and operational equipment of the territory of the theater of military operations in the north-west of Russia.
This should be done publicly. It will be a cheap, angry, but effective option. Moscow needs to convey its determination to implement this action plan to the leadership of Finland and Sweden, and then these countries themselves, despite possible membership in NATO, will not allow the deployment of additional alliance forces on their territory. Just based on the instinct of self-preservation. So the battle will be won before it even starts.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok