Reports indicate that Russia is building a large-scale reinforced bunker system around Moscow and in the Ural Mountains, a sign some believe is additional evidence of a Russian military build-up that might be leading to World War 3. U.S. intelligence officials have known that Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has invested heavily in the past few years to construct “dozens” of reinforced bunkers in a revitalized command post system that are meant to withstand the devastating effects of a nuclear war.
The Daily Mail reported September 4 that Western officials have become increasingly worried about signs that Russia appears to be readying itself for some sort of major confrontation. In the past few years, Russia has invested in a massive military refurbishing effort, not to mention its seeming need to keep its standing military at a constant readiness level and the build-up of troops (as reported by Inquisitr ) along the tense Ukraine border . With reports of a “top secret” move to build modernized bunkers and a recent worrisome change in its nuclear weapons use strategy, fears have surfaced that Russia may not be unwilling to at least engage in a limited or strategic use of such weapons.
In effect, experts are concerned that such a willingness might lead to uncontrolled escalation, multi-national involvement, and, ultimately, World War 3.
The disclosure of the “top secret” bunker system comes on the heels of U.S. officials being made aware of the change in Russian nuclear weapons use doctrine, a development that Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. European Command, found “alarming.”
The Washington Free Beacon reported that Scaparotti, in speaking before a conference held by the U.S. Strategic Command in July, said, “It is clear that Russia is modernizing its strategic forces .”
He continued, “Russian doctrine states that tactical nuclear weapons may be used in a conventional response scenario. This is alarming, and it underscores why our country’s nuclear forces and NATO’s continues to be a vital component of our deterrence.”
In fact, NATO has increased its presence along Russia’s western border in eastern Europe, a presence that Russia has used to justify its own build-up along the border as well as the unprecedented number of military exercises and snap drills conducted by the Russian military in the past three years. One recent surprise snap drill , according to a reported by Inquisitr , was designed to ensure troop combat readiness and occurred from August 25 to September 1. The drill was a surprise to the West, not to mention puzzling in its excess due to the upcoming massive Kazkav-2016 military exercises set to occur later in September.
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But the reinforcement of the command post bunkers is troubling. “Russia is getting ready for a big war which they assume will go nuclear, with them launching the first attacks,” Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear policy official told the Free Beacon . “We are not serious about preparing for a big war, much less a nuclear war.”
The U.S. and its allies have historically taken a non-proliferation, match and deter, stance when it comes to nuclear armament. Given that most military experts, professional and academic, agree that an extended hostile exchange of nuclear weapons would lead to Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), politics of the Cold War and up to the present, have operated on the premise that even a strategic use of nuclear bombs could lead to all-out, world-destroying warfare — something to be avoided at all costs.
The change in Russian nuclear weapons doctrine seems to allow for the heretofore avoided option of the possibility of using a nuclear weapon in a strategic strike. In short, as many experts see it, the open allowance puts a heavy strain on mutual deterrence. Some — like Dr. Loren Thompson, a defense expert at the American think-tank Lexington Institute, told the National Interest magazine — think a war between the U.S. and Russia is growing ever more likely.
“The possibility of nuclear war between America and Russia not only still exists, but is probably growing,” Thompson said. “And the place where it is most likely to begin is in a future military confrontation over three small Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.”
Thompson’s words echo those of a report from the Washington-based international affairs think-tank Atlantic Council issued in July, which noted, as was recounted by Inquisitr , that Russia could use its military exercises as a distraction and launch an “overnight” attack on the Baltic States with “no warning,” and essentially control the three states within days.
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Thompson warned, “History may one day record that the greatest strategic blunder in history was the failure of U.S. leaders to take the possibility of nuclear war between America and Russia seriously once the Cold War ended.”
And now there’s news that Russia has been “hardening” (reinforcing to have the capability of withstanding a nuclear blast) a series of command post bunkers.
Of course, the possibility also exists that Russia is merely modernizing an antiquated command structure. But could the Russian Federation not have done this without all the military build-up, policy changes, and constant drilling and war-readiness exercising? Surely, if updating obsolete command structures and communications systems was all that was needed, what makes the aggressiveness necessary?
But one aspect indicates that Russia’s leaders aren’t entirely entrenched in an inevitability of nuclear war mentality. The fact that a “top secret” building project is known to exist presents the idea that there are those that hold out for peace between Russia and NATO (and the U.S.), uneasy though it might continue to be.
Still, the possibility of World War 3 looms, and with the ongoing aggressive posturing and rhetoric, worried leaders on all sides add the news of nuclear blast-resistant bunkers to the growing evidence that Russia just might not be as war-averse at present as it has been in the recent past.
[Image via ID1974/Shutterstock.com]