Construction of military facilities in the Kuril Islands. Construction of military facilities on the islands of the Kuril chain

Image copyright AFP

Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Defense and Security of the Federation Council Franz Klintsevich announced the construction of a naval base in the Kuril Islands. This is not the first mention of a military facility on the islands; Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke about this earlier, but this is the first time this project has been talked about in the present tense.

“The decision has been made. It is under implementation,” Klintsevich said, without specifying where exactly the military facility will be located.

Perhaps he meant the island of Matua - a small piece of land in the center of the Kuril ridge. In 2016, Defense Minister Shoigu said that Russia intended not only to restore, but also to actively exploit this island.

By that time, a large expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Pacific Fleet (PF) had already visited the island. The second expedition began in the summer of 2017 and is still ongoing.

• Russian senator: the decision on the naval base in the Kuril Islands has been made
• Will Putin agree to the return of the Kuril Islands to Japan?
• Japan regrets the deployment of Russian missiles in the Kuril Islands

“Specialists carried out more than 1,000 laboratory studies on physical, chemical and biological indicators, made more than 200 measurements of the relief and external environment. Radiation and chemical reconnaissance was also carried out, the fortifications of the island and more than 100 historical objects were examined. Divers carried out hydrographic research of the bays and bays of the island of Matua,” says the Russian Geographical Society’s website.

Image copyright Google

The expedition reports talk a lot about the study of marine invertebrate animals and algae, the study of the activity of the Sarychev Peak volcano, but if the Ministry of Defense really intends to build a base on this island, then hydrographic studies of the seabed topography and the study of the remains of Japanese military structures are most likely especially important for it .

The new base will be capable of receiving any ships, including the first rank, Klintsevich said on Thursday, without specifying which ships will be based at this facility.

Ships of the first rank include aircraft carriers, destroyers, missile and anti-submarine cruisers, and nuclear submarines. For such deep-draft craft, the seabed really needs to be carefully prepared.

The ownership of some of the Kuril Islands by Russia is disputed by Japan. They went to the Soviet Union at the very end of World War II, when Soviet naval forces landed on the islands. The ownership of some of the islands was not secured by international treaties.

Japan claims the Kuril Islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small Habomai islands, citing the Shimonoseki Treaty of 1855. The Matua island that Shoigu spoke about does not belong to the group of disputed ones - it is located in another part of the ridge, in its central region.

Russia insists that the islands belong to it, citing the inadmissibility of revising the results of World War II.

Island as a base

The Kuril Islands are located in a strategically important area: they separate the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from Pacific Ocean, as if blocking the exit to him from south coast Russian Far East.

During the Second World War, a powerful system of fortifications, airfields, naval bases. One of the objects was located just on Matua - coastal concrete fortifications, the remains of an airfield, warehouses, and shelters still remain on the island.

Image copyright Google

IN Soviet time and until 2001 there was a border post on the island, but in last years the island remained uninhabited.

Currently, the 18th machine gun and artillery division (the only such formation in the Russian army) is deployed on the Kuril Islands with reinforcement units in Iturup and Kunashir. Recently, Bal and Bastion coastal missile systems, as well as Buk anti-aircraft systems, were deployed on the islands. The Bastion complex was located on the island of Iturup, and the Bal complex was located on Kunashir.

Matua is not the most comfortable place to live or even to build a military base. Strong winds blow on the island; there are no large convenient bays on the coast. Finally, all Northern part a small island - a volcano that last erupted quite recently - in 2009.

The island is located at a great distance from supply bases, and communication with it, especially in winter months, is difficult due to the fact that the Sea of ​​Okhotsk freezes in this place.

Image copyright NASA

In any case, building a large base on it will be extremely expensive.

However, Russia appears ready to spend. On the one hand, the Kremlin has long been striving to expand its military presence in the World Ocean. And the Pacific region, which has attracted more and more attention in recent years, is extremely important for Russia.

For example, one of the two amphibious helicopter carriers that Russia intended to purchase from France was to be based in the Pacific Fleet.

"When I served in Far East, the issue of placing a naval formation of the Pacific Fleet in the Kuril Islands was considered. It is profitable to create a base on the islands for the only reason - direct output into the ocean. Of the places that were determined to be suitable for it in terms of geometry, the difficulties were as follows. The first is difficult ice conditions in winter. The second is the ebb and flow of about six meters. The third is strong winds,” former commander of the Baltic Fleet Admiral Vladimir Valuev said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

During the times of the USSR, which had a larger Pacific Fleet than Russia now, there was a large military base was never built.

Russia's second goal is to gain a foothold on the Kuril Islands themselves. The unresolved issue with the Kuril Islands hinders the development of relations between the two countries; it is raised every time by Moscow and Tokyo and clearly makes both sides very nervous.

What kind of base can Russia afford?

Speaking about the scale of the future facility, Senator Franz Klintsevich said that the new base will be capable of receiving any ships, including the first rank.

At the same time, Klintsevich used the word “base”, that is, he meant quite large object, which should include not only berths, but also infrastructure for the maintenance of ships, ideally a dock and ship repair yard, barracks for accommodating crews and base personnel, air defense units and an airfield.

And all this is on an island with an area of ​​52 square kilometers, a significant part of which is occupied by a volcano.

Senior researcher at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics, Vasily Kashin, told the BBC that as a result, only a small logistics and technical support center for ships may appear on Matua, in Syria, and Russia will invest money in already existing bases of the Pacific fleet.

There are five of them in the Far East - in Vladivostok, Fokino, Vilyuchinsk (nuclear submarines are based there), Sovetskaya Gavan and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

“Maybe it will be a harbor where there will be several piers, again we don’t know how many; there will be an icebreaker and a couple of tugs, and some small forces will be constantly deployed,” he said.

At the same time, Kashin noted that even if, for example, a large anti-submarine ship (first rank) can approach the island, it is still unknown how many such ships can be serviced there at the same time and what volume of service they can receive there.

with each construction project it becomes more and more difficult to count... As previously reported, Spetsstroy was going to rebuild in Sakhalin region a number of military facilities, among them completely autonomous military camps with residential buildings and dormitories, barracks, related infrastructure, cultural, leisure and sports institutions. How these intentions are being implemented in practice can be learned from the November publications related to the Ministry of Defense. In particular, they say that the authorities federal agency special construction of Russia and the director of Spetsstroy, A. Volosov, after an inspection trip to the Southern Kuril Islands in the middle of the year, assured that construction problems had been resolved, the timing and order of delivery of social and military facilities had been determined, and thus, everything that was planned for the rearmament of the group of Russian troops in The Southern Kuril Islands will be done! There are a lot of plans, judge for yourself:

Kitovaya Bay.

On Iturup, in the military town of the village of Kitovoe, a contract dated 2012 provided for the construction of dormitories for officers and soldiers, a division headquarters, a checkpoint, a first-aid post, storage facilities and depots for fuels and lubricants, a food plant, training parade grounds and grounds, a large educational building, a sports training complex, etc. . according to the tender for the comprehensive development of a military camp. All this must be completed and put into operation by the contractor. no later than November 15, 2015. More than 3 billion rubles were transferred in advance for construction under the terms of the contract. However, not a penny reached the subcontractors. There are no design estimates for which the general contractor is responsible, no technical conditions and working documentation for the projects, and no working resources: of the required number of 700 builders, about a third are on site. The general contractors of the FSUE Spetsstroyengineering, GUIR No. 2 (organizations subordinate to Spetsstroy) arrived at the construction site only in July of this year, as if preparing for the inspection.

military unit in the village of Goryachiy Plyazh. Kunashir

The delay in completing planned work is colossal; almost a year, it is impossible to catch up with such a backlog in local conditions, in addition, failure to meet deadlines is fraught with the collection of a large penalty. Well, the military will not receive many long-awaited residential infrastructure facilities - dormitories and barracks facilities. It turns out that soldiers and officers will have to serve in tents, as is now happening in Primorye due to the fault of Spetsstroy? Construction work did not begin at all at the facilities of the economic zone, training and material base, missile and artillery weapons depot, base area of ​​a group of support vessels and engineering support facilities. Or maybe in Kunashir the contractors of Spetsstroy “Spetsstroyengineering” and GUIR No. 2 are meeting the deadlines?

military unit in the village of Lagunnoye, Kunashir.

Here, under a similar contract from 2012, the same military-based infrastructure must be delivered by 2015. The advance for this project was also received in full, but by November a temporary administrative camp had been set up for only 20 people and some construction materials had been brought in. Construction in Kunashir requires about 600 specialists, but only 30 people work. A strange situation has developed... For some reason, the Military Department is tolerating the unrest and confusion happening in Spetsstroy. And endless commissions, meetings, approvals between the military and the management of the builders are simply meaningless. For the reason that, according to the military, different people constantly come to all these events, often having nothing to do with the fulfillment of the contract. Since 2012, four subcontractors have changed at the Kuril construction sites, while the military department has not received any reports on the funds disbursed from any of them.... Meanwhile, the disruption of work on the islands of Kunashir and Iturup directly affects plans for military construction and ensuring national security on our eastern borders.

Scope valid until 2015 Federal Target Program "Socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands for 2007-2015" amounts to 21 billion rubles.

The bulk of this amount is allocated from the federal budget. The Sakhalin Region also plans to attract funds from private investors for the development of the Kuril Islands. Private investment in the islands' economy now amounts to a billion rubles a year, and by 2015 it will increase to 6 billion. details about the new infrastructure of the Kuril Islands (many photos) The Kuril Islands include 30 large and many small islands. The population lives permanently only in Paramushir, Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan. Population of the Kuril Islands - 18,735 people Kunashir Island- most south island Great ridge of the Kuril Islands. Population - approx. 8000 people. Yuzhno-Kurilsk - administrative center South Kuril District.


Social housing

In August 2012, a ceremony for presenting warrants and keys to new apartments took place in Yuzhno-Kurilsk. The 10-apartment building was built with funds from the regional and local budgets under one of the regional programs.
House of Culture (medical and educational expedition “Borders of Russia”, August 2010)
New kindergarten Port of Yuzhno-Kurilsk New deep-water berth

The commissioning of modern deep-sea berthing complexes in Kunashir and Iturup will bring it to a qualitatively new level transport infrastructure in the Kuril Islands and will improve the quality of life on the islands. The motor ship "Igor Farkhutdinov" moored at the new pier for the first time (February 2011)
Construction is underway with funds from the federal program for the socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands and the budget of the Sakhalin region marine terminal on the territory of the constructed mooring complex in the South Kuril Bay. In addition to passengers, this building will house various services - a border checkpoint, a customs post, port supervision, administration and a control room. seaport. Completion of construction is planned for 2012.

Mendeleevo Airport The airfield was built by the Japanese when the island of Kunashir was still under Japanese control and has hardly been rebuilt since then. In 2006 it was closed due to complete deterioration of the infrastructure and destruction of the runway. During the reconstruction, within the framework of the Federal Target Program for the socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands, a new passenger terminal, taxiways, a new apron, a runway (runway), a landing system and lighting equipment were put into operation. Operates on the island Mendeleevskaya GeoTPP(geothermal power plant), which provides the island with heat and electricity. Volcano energy as a source of heat and light for humans is the operating principle of this station. Commissioning of the second stage of the station in 2007 provided 100% of the heat demand in Yuzhno-Kurilsk. The planned modernization of the Mendeleevskaya Geothermal Power Plant will increase its capacity from 3.6 MW to 7.4 MW.
On about. Kunashir operates two fish processing plants - LLC PKF "South Kuril Fish Processing Plant" and LLC "Delta". The Yuzhno-Kuril Fish Processing Plant has modernized its production processing lines. All fish and seafood caught by its own trawl fleet are delivered ashore without loss of quality. Integrated shift of 25 people successfully copes with large volumes of incoming raw materials. In 2011, the first kilometers of asphalt were laid on Kunashir Island.

Iturup Island-island of the southern group of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands, the most large island archipelago. Population - 6387 people. Kurilsk- the administrative center of the island. In recent years, a modern microdistrict “Severny” has been built in the village of Kurilsk. It is planned to build within its boundaries Grand Palace culture and sports, under the roof of which there will be a sports complex, a swimming pool, a cultural center and other institutions. In 2006, the modern fish processing complex "Reidovo" was launched on the island..
Six air freezing chambers ensure the production of 74 tons of finished frozen fish products per day.
On about. Iturup also houses the Yasny fish processing plant, equipped with a one-of-a-kind freezing tunnel for air freezing of fish, which allows the continuous freezing of 210 tons of finished fish products per day. There is a caviar workshop where 3 tons of caviar are produced per day. In addition, there is a salting shop with a capacity of 25 tons per day and a refrigerator with a capacity of 2300 tons of simultaneous storage. There are several other fishing enterprises, the largest of which are Skit, Bug, and Continent. Kurilskaya buildings have already been built on the island high school for 250 students, as well as a modern central district hospital with 50 beds and a clinic for 100 visits per shift. New hospital
Sports complex

improvement work

In February 2012, two 8-apartment buildings were put into operation
New airport“Iturup” is located on the sunny side of the island, which will allow you to easily get to the island even in bad weather. The extended 2.2 km long runway will accommodate all types of aircraft operating in the region. Near Kurilsk there is a geothermal spring with radon waters.
A few years ago, the springs consisted of two concrete vats for salting fish, in which vacationers took baths, not forgetting to litter the surrounding area with broken bottle glass. Geothermal springs were improved by the company "Gidrostoroy"
Shikotan Island- the largest island of the Malaya ridge of the Kuril Islands. Malokurilskoe- the administrative center of the island. Population - approx. 2100 people. Using funds from the federal program, a deep-water pier has already been built and is being operated in Malokurilskaya Bay on Shikotan, and in the neighboring Krabozavodskaya Bay on the same Shikotan, the construction of a pier is nearing completion on co-financing terms - the own funds of Gidrostroy JSC and the regional budget.



The Krabozavodsk fish processing complex is equipped with the most modern equipment .
The workshop's capacity allows it to receive and process up to 300 tons of raw fish every day.
New kindergarten for 70 places (2010)