Russian nuclear bases exposed in enormous intelligence leak

On May 28, German news magazine Der Spiegel and Danish investigative NGO Danwatch announced that they are in possession of two million documents revealing extensive upgrades and expansions of Russia’s nuclear weapons bases. Among the leaked documents are hundreds of blueprints of two of Russia’s most protected nuclear missile bases.

Located by the town of Yasny in southern Russia near the Ural Mountains and close to the border with Kazakhstan, the two bases have been home to parts of Russia’s most modern nuclear arsenal since 2019, when they received nuclear-capable Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles.

Announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin the year before during a speech on the modernization of the country’s nuclear arsenal, the Avangard is launched by a conventional rocket booster from which it then separates and glides unpowered, at extremely high speeds, towards a target. It has a reported range of 6,000 kms (or 3,728 miles) allowing it to strike any European capital from Yasny.

According to satellite imagery, the two bases underwent significant expansion in the last decade and their defensive measures were considerably augmented including with the addition of remote-controlled machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, and even air defense systems.

However, thanks to the intelligence trove, the bases’ sensitive interiors have now been brought to light in extraordinary detail.

“Until now we have only been able to monitor these bases from above using satellite imagery,” Hans M. Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists, told Danwatch.

“Now, with the help of these unique drawings, we can now for the first time get inside the buildings and all the way underground. It’s completely unprecedented,” he added.

The blueprints expose the extent of Russia’s modernization efforts outlining construction and technical material deliveries to the bases. They reveal that some of the materials were acquired from Western European companies.

They also provide detailed descriptions of the bases’ security systems and even the locations of internal surveillance cameras, according to the Danish NGO. Soldiers’ facilities and recreational areas are also described.

“Material like this is the ultimate intelligence,” Philip Ingram, a former colonel and leader of the 1 Military Intelligence Battalion in the British Army told Danwatch.

“If you can understand how the electricity is conducted or where the water comes from, and you can see how the different things are connected in the systems, then you can identify strengths and weaknesses and find a weak point to attack,” Ingram added.

The documents were reportedly acquired by Danwatch and Der Spiegel from a public military tender database over a period of months. Russia has been gradually shifting to a restricted tender database for security reasons, however contractors would still post sensitive documents on the public database.

Sandboxx News was unable to independently verify the blueprints.

Russia’s nuclear triad is comprised of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and strategic bombers.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has not yet commented on the massive leaks nor on their significance.

Feature Image: Satellite imagery of one of Russia’s nuclear base in Yasny. (Danwatch)

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