A new geomilitary movement on the front puts several blocks on alert. But it is not Ukraine or Gaza, but the Arctic. “The place where the confrontation of the main states of the world takes place,” in the recent words of the head of the Russian Navy, Aleksandr Moiseev.
“In addition to political and economic measures to contain Russia in the Arctic, hostile states are increasing their military presence in the region,” the admiral added at the forum in St. Petersburg,
Moiseev, who recently arrived at the military command of the Navy, alleged as reasons for this alleged pressure the reestablishment of the Second Fleet by the US in 2018 and the creation in 2021 of the NATO Joint Forces Command in Norfolk.
The same Russian military high command added that another reason for the increase in tensions has been Moscow’s suspension of the Arctic Council, made up of eight members, after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the imposition of economic sanctions on institutions. Russian financial institutions, companies and individuals, adds the .
The other seven nations in the forum are members of NATO. And precisely from the Atlantic Alliance there is distrust of what Russia can do in the Arctic.
The most recent report from the Center for European Political Analysis, called Up Northdetails recommendations for what NATO could do in this new security and climate environment. If left unchecked, Russia “wants to claim the Arctic as its own,” Admiral Daryle Caudle, commander of Fleet Forces, said during a recent Naval League online event.
Regional security experts, such as those at the Center for European Policy Analysis, point to Russia’s long-standing interest in the Arctic, which has decades of exploitation and economic use of minerals and energy sources in the Arctic.
This institution warned in its recent report on security in the Arctic of an update of the Soviet “Bastion” strategy, with an accumulation of troops along the sea route and the Arctic Zone.
“Bastion is a multi-domain, multi-layered ‘protective dome’ of air defense, maritime access denial, coastal defense systems and domain reconnaissance capabilities located along critical choke points of the [Zona Ártica rusa]. It aims to greatly impede adversary military operations and degrade the operational environment at sea, in the air and in the electromagnetic spectrum.”
