In 2014, Rus­sia wants to inten­si­fy its mili­ta­ry acti­vi­ty in the Arc­tic by estab­li­shing a new com­mand struc­tu­re which has the objec­ti­ve to defend Russia´s natio­nal inte­rests in this regi­on. This includes the pro­tec­tion of mili­ta­ry faci­li­ties and civi­li­an ships as well as secu­ring access to the mine­ral resour­ces on the Arc­tic shelf.

The new mili­ta­ry struc­tu­re will be cal­led “Nor­t­hern Fleet – United Stra­te­gic Com­mand” (SF-OSK). Its sta­tus will be that of a mili­ta­ry dis­trict, even if this is not offi­ci­al­ly shown in its name. So far, the Rus­si­an mili­ta­ry is orga­ni­zed in four lar­ge dis­tricts: Wes­tern, Sou­thern, Cen­tral and Eas­tern.

The main com­bat force of the SF-OSK will be the Nor­t­hern Fleet, which is based at the Mur­mansk regi­on, clo­se to the Nor­we­gi­an bor­der. It will be with­drawn from the “Wes­tern Mili­ta­ry Dis­trict” to form the basis of the new struc­tu­re. Other units from Nor­t­hern Rus­sia will be added and new units will be based at Nova­ya Zem­lya, at Franz Josef Land and on the Novo­si­birsk Islands.

This new stra­te­gic ori­en­ta­ti­on of the Rus­si­an mili­ta­ry must be seen in rela­ti­on to the explo­ra­ti­on of resour­ces in the Arc­tic during the last years. Esti­ma­tes tell us that about 30% of the world´s undis­co­ver­ed gas depo­sits and 15% of the oil are loca­ted on the Arc­tic shelf. Here, as other count­ries in this regi­on, Rus­sia defends its eco­no­mic inte­rests, wit­hout making a secret of it. Pro­po­sals of put­ting the Arc­tic under the con­trol of the inter­na­tio­nal com­mu­ni­ty or to estab­lish pro­tec­ted are­as, simi­lar to tho­se in the Ant­ar­c­tic, were unam­bi­guous­ly refu­sed by the Rus­si­an Pre­si­dent Vla­di­mir Putin in Octo­ber 2013.

Source: Barents­no­va