President Vladimir Putin has appointed security veteran Nikolai Patrushev to head a new body in charge of Russia’s maritime policy.
The new Naval Council will include councils responsible for the development of Russia’s naval activity and war fleet and will defend Russia’s interests in the Arctic, according to a decree issued by Putin.
Russia has a decidedly stronger navy than Ukraine, but has suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks at sea during the two-and-a-half-year war, beginning with the April 2022 loss of the guided-missile cruiser Moskva (Moscow), its flagship Black Sea Fleet.
Patrushev, 73, is a former head of the FSB security service and has been close to Putin since they worked together at the Soviet KGB in Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in the 1970s.
The Kremlin said in May he would take on new responsibilities related to the shipbuilding industry after he was removed as head of Russia’s Security Council in a reshuffle at the start of Putin’s fifth term as president.
Nuclear plans
Alongside the above, a report leaked to Western media claims that Russia has trained its navy to target locations deep inside Europe using nuclear-capable missiles in a potential conflict with NATO.
Files seen by the Financial Times show maps of targets as far away as the west coast of France and Barrow-in-Furness in the UK, detailed in a presentation for officers.
The files, compiled between 2008 and 2014 and before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, include a list of targets for missiles that can carry either conventional warheads or tactical nuclear weapons, the FT reported.
The presentation shows Russian officers emphasizing the advantages of using nuclear strikes at an early stage, it said.
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