How Russia is Secretly Modernizing Its Nuclear Potential

As explained in this media outlet, investigators have gained access to hundreds of detailed diagrams and other secret documents that show how the "grandiose modernization" of Russia's nuclear potential is taking place, using the example of the Yasny launch base, located in the Orenburg region, in the southern Ural Mountains.

"Yasny" is one of 11 positions in Russia from which it is possible to launch long-range missiles from the ground, including those equipped with nuclear warheads.

According to the media outlet, the journalists "analyzed more than two million documents related to Russian military procurement, which Danwatch systematically extracted from a publicly available database over a number of months."

“Russian authorities have gradually restricted access to this base,” the authors say, “but we have been able to circumvent these restrictions using various digital technologies, including a network of servers located in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.”

However, the scale can also be assessed visually - by simply comparing satellite images of the region published by journalists, taken several years apart.

 

Where previously only “the cover of a missile silo and a few inconspicuous buildings surrounded by a low fence” could be seen on the surface, now entire military complexes have grown up, protected by a triple high-voltage perimeter.

Surveillance cameras and the necessary defensive measures are everywhere - including remotely controlled firing positions, grenade launchers on stretchers and modern air defense systems.

In some images, quite obvious outlines of buildings can be distinguished - for example, observation posts located in the center of the territory.  

“For decades, researchers have been tracking the development of Russia’s nuclear potential in this way, using satellite imagery,” writes Danwatch, a publication known for its investigations into socially important topics, including abuse of power, embezzlement, etc.

 

“However, satellites cannot even look under the roof, let alone penetrate underground. That is why earlier monitoring of nuclear bases was limited to such research,” explain the authors of Danwatch. “Until recently.”

 

Now, as a result of a “giant leak” of documents from Russian security agencies, investigators have been able to learn much more about what exactly is located in the closed territory (which formally has the status of a special-purpose area), how these facilities are arranged, and how they are protected.

The journalists have received “hundreds of the most detailed diagrams of Putin’s new bases,” which allow “for the first time to lift the veil of secrecy around Vladimir Putin’s plans.”

 

“With the help of these drawings, we can look inside the buildings for the first time and even go underground,” says Danwatch co-founder and one of the world’s leading experts on nuclear weapons Hans Christensen. "This is an absolutely unprecedented case."

 

Putin’s Threats

 

As the investigation recalls, on March 1, 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a speech in Moscow, announcing the creation of a series of new nuclear weapons systems that should give the country an advantage in the race with the West.

“Nobody wanted to listen to us,” Putin said then. “So listen now.”

What the Russian president was silent about then was the large-scale modernization of Russia’s nuclear complex.

It took more than 10 years to develop a modernization plan - but by the time Putin gave his speech in Moscow, this work (including at the Yasny base) was already in full swing.

Journalists reviewed hundreds of thousands of documents showing that new military facilities have been built across Russia in recent years.

Old Soviet-era bases have been practically rebuilt: hundreds of new barracks, observation posts, command centers and warehouses have already been built on their territory, and underground tunnels have been dug between them to connect the buildings.

The documents published by Spiegel and Danwatch contain diagrams of one of the buildings on the territory of a Russian military facility. The purpose of the building is difficult to determine exactly, but its plan includes a "control room" and a security room.

This is just one of many buildings located at numerous military facilities mentioned in the publication. It is not known which plans fell into the hands of journalists. However, the very fact of the presence of such diagrams in a foreign country poses a serious threat to the security of the bases of the Strategic Missile Forces (SRF).

 

Stationary nuclear facilities, such as mine launchers or warhead storage facilities, are traditionally well protected from air strikes. They are believed to be able to withstand both a high-precision missile strike and a nuclear explosion in close proximity.

The location of mine installations is known to a potential adversary, and their security is maintained solely by engineering forces and deep underground location.

This distinguishes them from mobile launch complexes, which are not as well protected from similar threats, but benefit from maneuverability and stealth of movement.

Stationary facilities are vulnerable not only to missile attacks, but also to possible sabotage by special forces.

That is why such facilities are guarded by trained units, especially from the RVSP and other law enforcement agencies. If drawings of such facilities become publicly available, this could theoretically facilitate preparations for an attempted invasion of their territory.

One of the facilities, the scheme of which, according to media reports, ended up in the hands of Western journalists, is located just 30 kilometers from the Russian-Kazakh border.

This country has friendly relations with Russia and it is hard to imagine that nuclear facilities would be attacked from its territory.

But the very fact that such facilities in principle have become more vulnerable, even taking into account such an unlikely scenario, should worry the Russian military.