Russia Will Move Ahead With Plans For New Base In Far East Kuril Islands

Russia has announced it will establish a naval base along its eastern seaboard, in the Kuril Islands.

"The decision was made, it is underway," said First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security Franz Klintsevich, according to reporting by Interfax. “[If] everything goes strictly according to plan, without emergency jerks, the work will begin in near future,” he said.

The Kuril Islands stretch north across the Pacific Ocean, from the Japanese island of Hokkaido to the southern tip of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

"The base, if it is built, will be able to receive any ships, including capital ships," said Klintsevich.

Russia sees the volcanic archipelago as an integral part of its territory, which it was awarded in the midst World War II during the Yalta Conference, held in 1945. The chain includes 56 islands, and has both a military-strategic and an economic importance, not only for Russia but for Japan as well, making the islands a source of bilateral tensions. Since the Second World War, the Kuril Islands were used as a strategic barrier by the Japanese to exit from the Sea of Okhotsk into the Pacific Ocean. At that time, a network of military defensive fortifications had been built.

Japan has made claims to islands such as Kunashir, Iturup and Shikotan, and the Habomai group of islets, collectively called the Southern Kurils, and lying closest to Japan.

“The Kuril ridge is Russian territory, and the deployment of military infrastructure and armaments on it ensures the security of [Russia’s] southeastern frontier,” said Igor Korotchenko, a member of the Public Council of the Russian Defense Ministry.

The idea of creating a new naval base for Russia’s eastern fleet was first raised in 2016, which called for the inclusion of Ka-52K naval attack helicopters, originally ordered for ships based at the Kamchatka Peninsula, and their deployment to the islands on a rotational basis.

In 2016, Russia has deployed its Bal and Bastion mobile anti-ship missile systems to the islands, according to Sputnik news agency. Bastion is capable of firing the supersonic homing Onyx anti-ship missile, which is designed to defend more than 600 km (373 mi) of coastline against surface targets and able to operate under conditions of intense fire and radio-electronic countermeasures.

Bal is armed with subsonic Kh-35 anti-ship missiles flying at low altitude, and are capable of striking sea and ground targets at a range of around 130 km (81 mi), including ships with a displacement of up to 5,000 tons.

In recent years Russia has announced steps it intends to take to aimed at strengthening its coastal defenses in the Pacific, within the plans to develop military infrastructure on Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, and in the Arctic zone, by 2020.