Russia plotting nuclear domesday bunker underneath remote mountain
The massive new nuclear base, dubbed Operation Dead Hand, would be used to launch retaliatory nuclear strikes on the West
The Kremlin is plotting to construct a huge underground command centre that can survive an attack by American bunker-busting bombs, it has been revealed.
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The Kosvinksy Kamen mountain, where soldiers were first stationed in the 1980s, has been selected as the location for Russia’s Operation Dead Hand.
The massive new nuclear base, known as Facility 1335, is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans to launch retaliatory nuclear strikes on the west.
The base would see back up control channels activated in the event that communication was lost with the Kremlin's high command.
Millions of pages of contracts, plans and tender documents have revealed the vast scale of a construction project costing hundreds of millions of pounds.
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Satellite imagery uncovered in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Danwatch shows building work plans and large military build-up on the mountain.
It includes heavy excavation to install high tech equipment including mine ventilation systems and air filtration units capable of screening chemical, biological, and radioactive fallout.
The site has already used three million litres of fuel, 823,000 litres of gas and about 20,000 tonnes of steel - the weight of three Eiffel Towers.
It has used enough concrete as would be required for 150,000 square meters of surface area - enough for a multi-storey apartment building.
The bulk of the construction work was carried out between 2020 and 2021, records show.
Putin first hinted at plans of the base 2020, when Moscow released a transcript of a meeting between the Russian leader and his senior military officials In the meeting, the group discusses plans to ensure Russia’s nuclear command and control infrastructure could handle an attack.
“We are aware that a lot depends on the survivability of these systems and their ability to continue operating in a combat environment,” Putin said during the meeting.
He added: “They have told me that the creation of an absolutely secure facility for controlling strategic nuclear forces, among others, is nearing completion, and that it will have a very high safety margin.”
The Sunday Times was unable to obtain images from within the bunker, with use of phones and on site cameras heavily restricted.
But images of the base have since been posted on Russian social media by soldiers based at the new military site known as Unit 20003.
Several images posted online show the once-remote outpost has become a sophisticated military complex, manned by troops who perform combat exercises, specialised drills and parades.
Construction documents describe the huge tunnels in the complex as “four-ten metres wide and tall”.
Clues about the purpose of the facility are hinted at in military publications obtained during the investigation.
In one article, published this year, a veteran of the main directorate of the Russian aerospace defence forces, Colonel Yu Andreev, suggested that the soldiers based at the bunker would if necessary "fulfil their historic mission of retaliation against any enemy who encroaches on our independence.”
In the same publication, he wrote in July last year that the facility was placed on "combat duty" in 2023 after "many years of experimental work".
A further hint at the revival of the Dead Hand strategy was issued last year by Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s security council.
Last year, after President Trump threatened to hit Moscow with sanctions unless it agreed to a ceasefire in Ukraine, he wrote a post on Telegram telling Trump to remember his favourite shows where zombies come back to life to attack humans “and think about how dangerous a ‘dead hand’ can be …”
Norwegian Staff College and armed forces’ Russian security policy expert Tom Roseth told The Sunday Times: “It appears that the Russians are securing this facility against every type of attack.
“To protect 1335 and the command-and-control facilities of the nuclear forces, they therefore have to dig even deeper and reinforce the site even more.
“The expansion of Facility 1335 follows a major upgrade of Russia’s nuclear forces, which has been given high priority within the Russian armed forces.
“The perimeter will once again be given priority now, in a more tense geopolitical situation in which Russia sees itself as being in conflict with the West.”