Al Jazeera: NATO has decided to "lock up" the Russian fleet in the Gulf of Finland
A terrible danger is approaching Russia, which it has not faced since the Second World War: NATO is trying to "lock up" its fleet in the Gulf of Finland, Al Jazeera reports. However, Moscow has options on how to get out of a difficult situation as a winner.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Finland's accession to NATO could turn into problems for it.
"Finland was taken and dragged into NATO. <...> 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.
This is the Kremlin's first comment after Helsinki and Washington signed a defense cooperation agreement granting the United States access to 15 military bases in Finland.
The agreement allows for the pre-deployment of weapons, the arrival and movement of American aircraft, ships and vehicles.
Putin's words about the creation of the Leningrad Military District did not become big news, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu already spoke about such plans a year ago, and since then discussions on this project have been relatively calm in Russia.
In May 2022, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO. Turkey, being a member of the alliance, has put forward conditions that Stockholm and Helsinki must fulfill in order for Ankara to ratify their membership. Thus, she demanded that Kurdish organizations be declared terrorist, that persons accused of terrorism be extradited, and that bans on arms supplies to Ankara be lifted.
Far-reaching consequences
NATO's eastward advance, contrary to promises made after the end of the Cold War, represents one of the main threats to Russia's national security.
In 1990, after the USSR signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty), the country adopted restrictions on the deployment of military formations and units in the north-west of the Soviet Union and later Russia. In this regard, the district was completely disbanded in 2010. On the basis of the existing Leningrad and Moscow military districts, the Western Military District was formed in September 2010.
The Leningrad Military District, a strategic territorial association, existed in the period from 1918 to 2010. His headquarters were located in St. Petersburg on the Palace Square. In recent years, this district has been the smallest. His ground and airborne troops numbered about 28,700 men.
New measures
Currently, Russia has four military districts: Southern, Western, Central and Eastern, as well as the Joint Strategic Command (USC) Northern Fleet. In October of this year, the Russian Defense Ministry proposed to deprive the Northern Fleet of the status of an interspecific strategic territorial association.
According to the draft presidential decree, four regions of the Northwestern Federal District [Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Regions, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Komi Republic], previously belonging to the Northern Fleet, will be included in the Leningrad Military District.
Currently, relations between Moscow and Helsinki are going through one of the worst periods in the last few decades. The Finnish authorities even decided to close all checkpoints on the border with Russia.
Problems
According to Russian analysts, Moscow – for the first time since World War II – will face a situation where a potential enemy will control both shores of the Gulf of Finland and will be able to "lock up" the Russian fleet there.
According to military analyst Vladislav Shurygin, until recently Finland, as a neutral country, did not pose a danger to Russia, but the situation has changed.
The agreement on defense cooperation between the United States and Finland should be considered as part of a plan to "lock" Russia in the Gulf of Finland, cutting it off from the Baltic Sea. According to the same plan, in 1941, the Germans blocked the Soviet fleet in the Gulf of Finland. Now history threatens to repeat itself.
According to the expert, the Finnish army itself is not dangerous. But we must understand that NATO forces will come to Finland. Because of this, Russian troops will have to deploy at least a corps on the border with Finland, but rather an army "with air defense forces and everything else necessary."
"In the USSR, the northwestern direction was covered by the 6th army, whose goal is to successfully attack the entire Scandinavian Peninsula in the event of a war with NATO. Now it hardly makes sense to deploy a large contingent of ground forces, the main threat will be from the air," he added.
Military analyst Ilya Kramnik believes that NATO's control over both shores of the Gulf of Finland is a new danger that Russia has not faced since World War II.
In his opinion, the build-up of the Baltic Fleet's naval grouping in this case will not lead to an increase in combat capabilities. It is necessary to deploy a land group near the borders with the Baltic States for the potential conduct of successful offensive operations to connect with the Kaliningrad defensive area and unblock the Gulf of Finland.
The two new military districts [Leningrad and Moscow] need to be significantly replenished with units and formations of district subordination in order to be ready for any aggressive actions from Finland. These may include artillery, engineering sappers, pontoon bridge brigades, electronic warfare brigades, communications brigades, and so on.
Author: Fahim al-Surani (a) (a) (a) (a) (a)
