An ‘Acute Threat’ Is Posed by Russia in Its Operations in the Arctic

Russia completes today its largest military exercises since the fall of the Soviet Union. With naval vessels operating in the Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, Baltic, Caspian, and Mediterranean, President Putin seeks through his Ocean-24 exercise to divert attention from his stalled war in Ukraine and to remind Communist China and the world that Russia is still a maritime power.Russia’s defense ministry said that 400 vessels, 120 aircraft and helicopters, and 90,000 personnel, are taking part in the exercise. Even with four Chinese warships and a supply vessel joining maneuvers in the northern Pacific, the Russian numbers seem to be a stretch. The Global Naval Powers ranking for 2024 says that the Russian Navy has 265 functioning ships, submarines, and patrol boats. Subtracting the 20 Russian warship ships lost or disabled in the Black Sea, Russia’s investigative news site Agentstvo calculates that just over 200 warships and submarines can “theoretically take part in the exercises.”For Mr. Putin, the message is paramount. Announcing the exercises, he warned: “Under the pretext of countering the allegedly existing Russian threat and containing the People’s Republic of China, the United States and its satellites are increasing their military presence near Russia’s western borders, in the Arctic and in the Asia-Pacific region.”On Wednesday, the second day of the exercise, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said it detected, tracked, and intercepted two Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone.On the waters below, a joint Russian-Chinese naval patrol plowed through the Sea of Okhotsk, staying west of the Aleutian Islands. Looking to the future, Mr. Putin knows cooperation with Beijing is crucial. China recently surpassed Russia to have the world’s second largest navy, after America’s. In the economic sphere, Russia-China trade soared 26 percent last year, to $240 billion. The People’s Republic is now Russia’s top trading partner.Ten days ago, at an economic forum at Vladivostok, Mr. Putin told the visiting Chinese vice president, Han Zheng, that climate change and investment in icebreakers are making Russia’s trans-Arctic North Sea Route a shipping alternative for Chinese manufacturers.“The freight traffic flow on this route has increased by an order of magnitude, from just four million tons in 2014 to over 36 million tons last year — this is 400 percent more than the Soviet-time record,” Mr. Putin said at Russia’s 9th Eastern Economic Forum. “We are building icebreakers, expanding our satellite cluster in orbit, strengthening the coastal infrastructure, and upgrading the network of emergency and rescue centers.” The leading nation in the Arctic, Russia has 41 icebreakers and five more under construction, he saidIn July, Russian Railways inaugurated “the Arctic Express,” a route that speeds freight 800 miles north from St. Petersburg to the Arctic port of Arkhangelsk. From there, ships take the containers over the top of Russia to China. Russian logistics experts calculate that this new “Ice Silk Road” cuts travel time between Moscow and Shanghai by as much as 50 percent. With up to 12 Arctic Express shipments planned before the end of this year, Russia plans — for the first time — to attempt to keep this sea route to China open year round. “I am confident that we have everything it takes to ensure year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route,” Mr. Putin said in Vladivostok. “The People’s Republic of China has been eager to work with us in this sector.” “The Arctic Express project is being implemented as part of joint Russian-Chinese development of the ‘Ice Silk Road,’” a Eurasian defense policy analyst, John C. K. Daly, wrote last week in an essay for Washington’s Jamestown Foundation, calling it “an initiative aimed at creating the shortest route from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic via the Arctic.” On the ground, Russia is the largest military power in the Arctic. Over the last decade, Russia has reopened a string of Cold War-era bases. Last week, as part of the Ocean-2024 exercise, Russian expeditionary troops flew into the eastern Arctic Ocean to protect the “military security” of coastal facilities.Last month, America also carried out Arctic drills, dubbed Operation Polar Dagger. The deputy defense secretary, Kathleen Hicks, told reporters in July that Russia’s military expansion in the Arctic represents an “acute threat.”

An ‘Acute Threat’ Is Posed by Russia in Its Operations in the Arctic

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