The end of December is a special month for the Russian military. Every year at this time, practically all the military leaders of the armed forces — including the president, the minister of defense and the chief of the general staff — come to the National Center for Defense Management in Moscow. They sum up the results, announce statistics, “express concern about NATO's actions” and, of course, call for vigilance. The generals then invariably bring what they hear at these meetings to their headquarters.
Therefore, the statement by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the annual meeting on the expansion of the western runway at the Khmeimim airbase in Syria was, on the one hand, a report on the work done. The reconstruction was conceived in 2019 and began in 2020 after the formal approval by Damascus of the protocol on the transfer of additional land and water area to Russia for the expansion of the Khmeimim and Tartus bases. However, the expansion is not only related to Syria, but also relations between Russia and NATO.
Moscow continues to seek long-term guarantees from Washington and Brussels, which, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, should rule out NATO expansion and the deployment of threatening weapons systems in close proximity to borders. However, the Russian side does this in its own way: throughout 2021, the Kremlin has tried to force NATO to new negotiations not only by the threat of hostilities with Ukraine, but also by activity in other directions. One of them is the systematic creation of threats on the southern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance, namely from Syria.
The western runway of the Khmeimim airfield, which Shoigu spoke about, was increased to 3199 meters long and 52-54 meters wide, with a new coating, lighting and radio equipment. In May, Russia placed three Tupolev Tu-22M3 nuclear-capable bombers there, which need a long runway due to their high landing speed. The deployment of the Tu-22M3 was supposed to show that the Americans are not the only ones who know how to relocate their strategic bombers — which they move periodically to the UK and Norway, from where they fly to the Russian borders.
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