In an interview given to the internal newspaper of the Ministry of Defense Krasnaya Zvezda (red star), the commander of the Northern Fleet, Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, announced the deployment of a long range anti-aircraft battery S400 on the Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya, separating the Barents Sea from the Kara Sea, above the Arctic Circle. According to him, all major sites of the Northern Fleet will receive, in the months and years to come, S400 systems to ensure their protection against aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
With the effects of climate change underway, the Arctic has become a strategic issue for Moscow. The probable reduction in sea ice should make it possible, in the more or less medium term, to open a northern waterway open most of the year, offering an alternative and economical route to the route passing through the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. to reach Europe. Additionally, the disappearance of thick sea ice and permafrost opens up significant mining and drilling opportunities for Russian companies, with Russia laying claim to the Arctic continental shelf.
In addition to protection against possible strikes coming from the United States and Canada and passing through the North Pole, the deployment of these long-range anti-aircraft systems, which is being done in parallel with the deployment coastal batteries armed with Bastion anti-ship missiles, as well as the reopening of permanent Arctic bases announced recently, allow Moscow to take control of this area and deploy a protective bubble there in denial of access. Thus, like Beijing in the China Sea, the Kremlin ensures an irremovable fait accompli in this area, independently of any international arbitration which, in any case, will not be recognized.
The fact remains that if these deployments hamper American, Canadian or Danish ambitions on the roads and the Arctic continental shelf, it is also a message sent to the Chinese ally, which has also shown significant ambitions in this area. Indeed, Beijing sees it as a harmful alternative to its strategic project of the new Silk Roads. From then on, the Chinese authorities have never stopped maintaining the status quo in the Arctic zone, building patrol boats and icebreakers to ensure its presence in the area. The fact that this first deployment takes place in the Barents Sea, and not in the Behring or East Siberian Sea, as close as possible to the United States and Canada, is certainly linked to a desire to preserve current good Sino-Russian relations. . But the announcement of its generalization to the entire Arctic zone nonetheless remains a clear message: Moscow will alone ensure control of the northern route.
After the western border with NATO, the Arctic is todaysecond major theater for Russian forces. Thus, a significant part T80BVM tanks were transferred there, being particularly well adapted to harsh Arctic conditions thanks to their propulsion turbine. Likewise, a specific version of the TOR M2 anti-aircraft system was developed and deployed to ensure close protection of forces against aircraft and cruise missiles. Several military bases, closed since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, have also been modernized to accommodate permanent forces.