Translated material
Kaliningrad bridgehead
Russia is looking for answers to NATO expansion and American missile defense in Eastern Europe
Russia, as promised, does not leave unanswered the ongoing attempts to expand NATO to the East (now at the expense of Georgia and Ukraine), as well as the upcoming deployment in close proximity to the Russian borders - in Poland and the Czech Republic - of the third echelon of the American missile defense system defenseLast Friday , members of the Russian State Duma Committee on Defense left the Kaliningrad region , who spent three days in the westernmost Russian region discussing how the Russian West should behave in such a potentially dangerous environment, from the point of view of the Russian authorities.
The Kaliningrad region does not have a land border with the Russian Federation; it is surrounded by Lithuania and Poland, both members of NATO. American missile defense missile defense systems should appear on the territory of the latter within the next few years. They will be located near Slupsk - less than 200 km from Kaliningrad. The countries neighboring the Kaliningrad region, having become leaders of anti-Russian rhetoric in recent years, fear retaliatory actions from the Russian Federation. Moreover, high-ranking representatives of the domestic defense department have said more than once that a “response to Chamberlain” will definitely follow and the Kaliningrad region will be involved in its implementation. It was unclear how exactly.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry even suggested at the end of August that the Baltic Fleet would receive nuclear weapons, which would be aimed at neighboring countries. “Russia’s threats to arm the Baltic Fleet with nuclear weapons and send them to Poland and the Czech Republic in response to these countries’ agreement to assist in the development of the US missile defense system are absolutely unacceptable. Lithuania very seriously evaluates such statements, which should not go unanswered,” said, in particular, the statement of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. What answer is being discussed is not explained in the document, however, the Republican Seimas has recently been quite actively discussing the option of placing a NATO base in Lithuania as a kind of guarantee against the military preparations of the “big neighbor.”
Nuclear weapons were also discussed at the end of last week. In Kaliningrad, at an interdepartmental meeting (closed to the press), organized by the State Duma Defense Committee, the prospects for modernizing the military group in the region were discussed. The meeting was not just a parliamentary conversation, but a completely substantive discussion - it was attended by high-ranking employees of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (deputy minister level and representatives of the General Staff), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (level of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary), the presidential administration of the Russian Federation (deputy representative level), the FSB , Ministry of Internal Affairs and other departments.
At the final press conference, journalists asked the head of the Duma Defense Committee, Colonel General Viktor Zavarzin, whether tactical nuclear weapons would appear in the region. “Such proposals are coming. We had a lot of conversations with the United States regarding tactical nuclear weapons (TNW). After all, it does not fall under the subject of agreements and negotiations on strategic stability that we are conducting with the Americans. And even when I was in NATO, they constantly asked us questions about tactical nuclear weapons in the Kaliningrad region. We asked a counter question: why are there American tactical nuclear weapons in Europe? For example, in Belgium,” said Mr. Zavarzin.
Nevertheless, the Colonel General clarified that today he does not see the need to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in the region: “The decision, of course, is made by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. But there is no need to escalate the situation. Other serious measures are needed to modernize and improve the forces and means that are available here. This applies to surface, underwater and coastal units.”
Let us note that at one time there were already nuclear weapons in the Kaliningrad region. In total, there were 40 launchers in the region, eight nuclear warheads were stored, the base was located near the small town of Gvardeysk and operated until the end of the 1980s.
Nevertheless, Mr. Zavarzin considers the modernization of the Baltic Fleet to be a more appropriate military response to NATO. Now the Baltic Fleet has destroyers, patrol and missile ships, boats and landing ships, anti-submarine ships and submarines. The lion's share of them left the stocks at the end of the last century. According to the head of the Duma committee, all this needs to be “modernized” plus the supply of qualitatively new weapons - high-precision ones. According to him, Russia can place new high-precision weapons closer to Poland. “We have forces and means, new types of weapons. We will place them near the position areas that will be located in Poland. This issue is being studied,” said the Colonel General. -- Samples of high-precision weapons - for example, for aviation and ground weapons are available. Now the question is about additional supplies.”
One of the participants in the closed meeting, who wished to remain anonymous, told Vremya Novostey that the possibility of deploying several aviation and air defense formations in the Kaliningrad region (with more active cooperation with the air defense of Belarus) was especially considered. In his opinion, this will be enough to change the balance of forces in such an important operational-strategic direction.
The newspaper’s interlocutor noted that there is no point in deploying missile systems (medium and shorter range) in the region, since any targets in Central-Eastern Europe can be “covered” with the help of the resources currently available in “big” Russia (intercontinental missiles, front-line attack dual-use aircraft, ballistic missiles from submarines of the Northern Fleet, and so on).
Speaking about the Kaliningrad region, Mr. Zavarzin (former military permanent representative of the Russian Federation in the North Atlantic Alliance) noted that “the situation here is very, very complicated, NATO members still do not understand us.” In his opinion, the westernmost Russian region is under the hood of its neighbors: “Groups are being built up, the infrastructure of ports, airfield networks, and so on are being studied. There has been an increase in reconnaissance in the region, the deployment of various forces and means that allow for a certain maneuver to deliver a surprise strike."
“We cannot stand aside from this,” said the head of the Duma defense committee.