Russia Bids Farewell to the Northern Military District

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“Given NATO’s desire to build up military potential near the Russian borders, as well as to expand the North Atlantic Alliance at the expense of Finland and Sweden, retaliatory measures are required to create an appropriate grouping of troops in Northwest Russia.”

The Russian Northern Military District is deactivated and the Leningrad and Moscow Military Districts are back—albeit with changes to reflect Russia’s current security situation. According to the excerpted article from Norway-based The Barents Observer, the restructuring of the Russian Northern Military District to the Leningrad and Moscow Military Districts comes in response to Finland and Sweden joining NATO.[i] With the move, the Northern Fleet, headquartered in Murmansk, is now “officially absorbed into a renewed Leningrad Military District.” St. Petersburg, Russia is again the command center of the extended Leningrad Military District.[ii] According to a defense expert quoted in the article, “as seen by Russia, it is necessary to improve the ability to fight full-scale land operations along the Finnish border and in the Baltic theatre of military operations.” The Northern Fleet will be subordinate to the Moscow Military District. These recent changes are more than just a re-ordering, as Russia continues its military reform and restructuring to give Russia an advantage in Ukraine and strengthen its position vis-a-vis a much longer frontier with NATO given the inclusion of Sweden and Finland.

Sources:

Thomas Nilsen “Putin signs northwestern regions into Leningrad military district,”The Barents Observer (independent Norwegian news site in Russian and English currently blocked in Russia), 26 February 2024. https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2024/02/putins-signs-northwestern-regions-leningrad-military-district

Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree reestablishing the Soviet-era Moscow and Leningrad military districts which means an end to the Northern Fleet as a military district.

With the move, the Northern Fleet is now officially absorbed into a renewed Leningrad Military District. The Northern Fleet Joint Strategic Command was given the status of a military district on 1 January 2021, a move seen to mirror the importance of Russia’s Arctic regions. In geographical size, the Northern Fleet was until today the third largest of Russia’s five military districts. At the same time, what was the Western Military District is now split into the new Moscow and Leningrad districts.

The Leningrad Military District includes the Republic of Karelia, the Komi Republic, and the oblasts of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov, as well as the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the City of St. Petersburg.

Dictator Putin’s decree was signed the same day as the Hungarian Parliament voted to ratify Sweden as NATO’s 32nd member state.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last December said “retaliatory measures are required” as both Finland and Sweden join NATO.

“Given NATO’s desire to build up military potential near the Russian borders, as well as to expand the North Atlantic Alliance at the expense of Finland and Sweden, retaliatory measures are required to create an appropriate grouping of troops in Northwest Russia,” Shoigu said.

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 longer 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,” Zysk previously said to the Barents Observer. She explains that seen with Russian eyes, it is necessary to improve the ability to fight full-scale land operations along the Finnish border and in the Baltic theatre of military operations.In addition to the new Leningrad- and Moscow military districts, Putin’s decree also adds the illegally occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson as part of the Southern Military District. The changes in Russia’s military districts take effect from March 1, Putin wrote in his decree.

Notes:

[i] For an additional European perspective on the restructuring of its military districts, see: “Russia Restructures Military Districts Amid Warnings of NATO War,” Euronews. 27 February 2024. https://www.euronews.com/2024/02/27/russia-restructures-military-districts-amid-warnings-of-nato-war

[ii] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city of Leningrad was renamed St. Petersburg, but the regional oblast designation remained Leningrad.