Russia started the training of its Pacific Fleet to demonstrate its military naval power and to impress Beijing ahead of the visit of China’s Defense Minister Li Shanfu to Moscow from April 16th to 18th, according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War.
Source: ISW report.
Details: As it is known, on April 14, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian military forces had raised the Pacific Fleet of the Eastern Military District to a higher level of combat readiness. Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, stated that units of the Pacific Fleet will conduct combat training.
“The readiness check of the Pacific Fleet is likely aimed at sending a signal to China that Russia supports Chinese security goals in the Pacific Ocean and that Russia remains an equal military partner capable of acting as a Pacific state, despite the degradation of Russian military power in Ukraine,” according to the report by ISW analysts.
At the institute, they also acknowledge that the Kremlin intends to use the readiness check of the Pacific Fleet to try to curb further support for Ukraine from Japan ahead of the “Big Seven” meeting on May 19-21.
Shoigu announced that the Russian military has declared that combat readiness checks are aimed at practicing methods of preventing the deployment of enemy forces in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk and repelling a landing of troops on the southern Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. These are two signals to Japan, which claims part of the archipelago seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II,” emphasized the institute.
In addition, the Eastern Military District of Russia recently deployed a battery of Bastion coastal defense missile systems on Paramushir Island in the northern part of the Kuril Islands, which are occupied by Russia and claimed by Japan. According to analysts, this could be a warning to Japan about further support for Ukraine.
“Russia likely intends to use its military presence in the northern Pacific Ocean to increase concerns about military escalation in relations with Japan to prevent further support for Ukraine during the G7 summit in Hiroshima,” ISW added.