ST. PETERSBURG, December 7. /TASS/. Russia has completed equipping its six military bases in the Arctic, a high-ranking source in the Russian army’s General Staff told TASS on Monday.
"According to the General Staff’s execution documents, the work for the deployment and equipment of six military bases on the Arctic islands and in the polar part of mainland Russia is completed," the source said at the fifth international forum that discusses the Arctic and its present and future.
He said that the bases were deployed on the islands of Kotelny (New Siberian Islands), Alexandra Land (part of the Franz-Joseph Land archipelago), Sredny (Severnaya Zemlya), as well as in the Rogachevo settlement (Novaya Zemlya), on Cape Schmidt and Wrangel Island (part of the Chukotka autonomous area).
"The first priority infrastructure facilities, including the administrative and housing complexes — closed-cycle military towns, aerodromes, combat positions of the Arctic units," the source said.
According to him, the newly built complexes at in the six bases will receive "hundreds of Russian military servicemen" in the New Year.
In 2016, he told TASS, the military will continue to build and improve Arctic infrastructure and furnish the northern forces with personnel, weapons and equipment. "Reinforcement of the troops groups in the Arctic zone is planned to be completed by the end of 2016, and during 2017 it is planned to complete the construction of the remaining infrastructure facilities and improve the airfield network, to create in the Arctic by 2018 self-contained mobile groups of troops," the source said.