FATIMA'S PROPHECY HAPPENING - Putin's New Military Decree Preparation for 'Large Scale' War with NATO—ISW
WE ARE AT THE VERGE OF WW 3 - FATIMA'S PROPHECY HAPPENING Putin's New Military Decree Preparation for 'Large Scale' War with NATO—ISW by Newsweek
Story by Isabel van Brugen
Russian President Vladimir Putin's new military decrees re-establishing the Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts indicate he is preparing for a potential large-scale war with NATO in the future, a U.S.-based think tank has said.
Kremlin propagandists have routinely warned of a looming world war. Ties between Washington and other NATO member states and Moscow have become increasingly strained over Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On Monday, the Russian president signed the decrees that reorganize Russia's military-administrative structure. One decree deprives Russia's Northern Fleet—which was previously responsible for land in the Northwestern Federal District—of its status as an "interspecific strategic territorial association," or joint headquarters.
The other decree formally re-establishes the Leningrad Military District and the Moscow Military District, with the Leningrad Military District taking over most of the territory previously under the Russia's Northern Fleet and the Moscow Military District taking over most of the territory previously under the Western Military District, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Monday.
The think tank noted that the second decree signed by Putin also incorporates the four regions of Ukraine that Putin proclaimed to have annexed in the fall of 2022— the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts—as well as Crimea, occupied since 2014.
"The inclusion of both the occupied and un-occupied parts of Ukrainian territory further suggests that Russia maintains maximalist objectives in Ukraine and seeks to fully absorb all five of these Ukrainian territories into the Russian Federation," the ISW said.
The re-creation of the Moscow Military District and Leningrad Military District "supports the parallel objectives of consolidating control over Russian operations in Ukraine in the short-to-medium term and preparing for a potential future large-scale conventional war against NATO in the long term," the think tank assessed.
Russian military analyst Yuri Fedorov previously told Russian investigative site Agentstvo that the recreation of the Leningrad Military District suggests that Russia is gearing up for possible conflicts with the Baltic States and NATO. The Leningrad Military District, stationed close to new NATO member Finland and the Baltic States, is a key component of the Russian armed forces that oversees parts of the nation's defense strategy in Russia's western region. Finland shares an 800-mile border with Russia.
Finland joined the NATO military alliance last year in response to Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Baltic States—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—have worked throughout the invasion to ramp up their defenses while sending aid to Ukraine.
Sweden cleared the last hurdle to joining NATO when Hungary's parliament ratified its bid to join the alliance on Monday.
The Leningrad Military District was merged in 2010 with the Moscow Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the Western Military District. However, Moscow changed course in August 2023 when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the military districts were under active formation.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry and NATO for comment via email.
