Free Republic

Call it the Muscovite version of "manifest destiny." On Monday, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that offers every Russian citizen a tract of land in their country's remote Far East. "All citizens will be entitled to apply for up to hectare of land in the Kamchatka, Primorye, Khabarovsk, Amur, Magadan and Sakhalin regions, the republic of Sakha, or the Jewish and Chukotka autonomous districts," the Moscow Times reports. This is a vast stretch of territory spanning the upper Arctic reaches near Alaska, down to islands off the coast of Japan and deep into the Siberian hinterland. Those...

Recently, Roger McDermott, a regular contributor to this publication, offered an excellent overview of the operational-strategic exercise being conducted in Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East by the Russian armed forces (EDM, July 6). McDermott correctly pointed to the role of the exercise in testing concepts associated with the “new look” reforms and called attention to the exercise’s testing the speed of deployment of brigades, their combat readiness, and capacity to engage in combined-arms combat in an air/land battle, and their logistical support to sustain combat actions. He also noted that while the scenario dealt with a wide range...

Russia plans to install new anti-missile defence systems on its border with North Korea in the wake of the international controversy over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Tuesday. The army will station two modern systems of the S-400 type near the border, an employee of the Defence Ministry was quoted as saying. He added that Russia is 'very concerned' about North Korean missile tests, noting that the test site is 'alarmingly close' to the Russian border. South Korea has blamed North Korea for the sinking of its Cheonan corvette near...

Russia is reinstating a decommissioned nuclear power warship in response to growing concerns in Moscow about China's military. . Japan’s Tokyo Shimbun reported May 25 that a senior Russian Navy Pacific Fleet official disclosed the effort to refurbish a decommissioned nuclear missile cruiser. According to the report, Russia will redeploy the warship to its Pacific Fleet. The objective is to counter China, which is advancing with military expansion efforts, the newspaper said, noting that the Admiral Lazarev, a 26,000-ton Kirov-class battle cruiser, was being rebuilt. The cruiser is currently moored in the Russian coastal region of Strelok Bay. “In order...

Russia will hold large-scale naval exercises near North Korea next month that were planned before the current stand-off on the Korean peninsula, naval officials said on Thursday. Tensions between the two Koreas are at their highest level in years, a week after international investigators accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors. Moscow, which maintains ties with North Korea, has issued repeated calls for calm and restraint from both sides to prevent tension from bubbling over into armed conflict. The Kremlin says it wants more information about the accusations that a North Korea torpedo...

Troops in the Russian Far East have not been put on high alert following the brewing crisis between North and South Korea, several military officials said on Wednesday. "We have not received any orders from Moscow to put the Pacific Fleet on high alert due to the conflict between the two Koreas. The fleet is currently carrying out scheduled exercises at sea and on land," a Pacific Fleet spokesman said on Wednesday. The official said the arrival of Russia's most powerful warships in the Pacific had been planned long ago as part of the biennial Vostok strategic exercises and was...

MOSCOW, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will witness the celebratory launch of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, officials say. During Putin's visit to the Russian Far East, he is expected to witness the inauguration of the first leg of the project, which should pump 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day, the news agency RIA Novosti said Sunday The oil will flow from Siberia to Russia's Far East and on to China and the Asia-Pacific region, the news agency said. The second part of the pipeline is expected to run about 1,300 miles from...