On October 8, the Defense Ministry presented a draft presidential decree that would deprive the Northern Fleet of its status as a military district.
If approved, the Northern Fleet will be absorbed into a renewed Leningrad Military District following the decision to split the Western Military Districts and reactivate Moscow and Leningrad like it was before 2010. […]
Katarzyna Zysk, a professor with the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), agrees that the ongoing restructuring is linked to the fact that Russia has got a much long land-border with NATO.
“The dividing of the Western Military District into the Moscow Military District and Leningrad Military District, as well as possibly subordinate the Northern Fleet to the latter, is a response to NATO enlargement in Northern Europe and expected further changes in allied defense posture,” says Zysk.
She explains that seen with Russian eyes, it is necessary to improve the ability to fight full-scale land operations along the Finish border and in the Baltic theatre of military operations Restructuring of the command and personnel organization comes as a result, Zysk says.
“At large, these plans continue the trend to a partial return to the Soviet era military organization of forces, effectively rejecting the military reforms implemented by the former Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov between 2008-2012.”
Professor Zysk believes that ultimately, “the objective is to make Russia capable of facing a possible confrontation with NATO, which is the best way to strengthen strategic deterrence.”
Russian Military Analyst Yuri Fedorov also asses that reestablishing Leningrad Military District is designed for warfare in “the Baltic countries and Finland”. These areas “must be saturated with troops,” he wrote in his Telegram channel. Läs artikel