In Russia, bunkers are experiencing the greatest renaissance since the end of the Soviet Union. Air protection systems are being upgraded across the country, and manufacturers of private shelters are experiencing the greatest demand of all time.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has long since reached the Russian Federation. Hundreds of thousands of reservists are recruited for deployment in the neighboring country. Ukrainian missiles fall on Russian soil. There are explosions at Russian military airports, the Crimean bridge is destroyed, the Russians complain about alleged “terrorist activities”. Meanwhile, Russians are looking for bunkers for fear of war.
Bomb shelters are being brought back to life across Russia. Three decades after the end of the Soviet Union, local authorities are checking which basements, bunkers and other shelters are still intact, reports Bloomberg, citing anonymous whistleblowers.
Nikolai Patrushev, a senior security official at the Kremlin, announced in April that all bunkers in southern Russia would be inspected. What is new is that civil defense facilities are now allegedly being checked throughout the country.
The background to this is the martial law that President Vladimir Putin declared on October 19 for the occupied regions in Ukraine. The only exception was Crimea. On the Black Sea peninsula and in the Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions bordering Ukraine, the “medium level of readiness” applies. A “high alert” has been declared in the other southern and western regions of Russia, including Moscow.
Martial law also allows the governors of individual Russian regions to introduce various emergency measures. “The closer the regions are to Ukraine, the greater the restrictions,” explains ntv Russia correspondent Rainer Munz.
These can be travel bans, curfews or expropriations. Or the rehabilitation and mobilization of bunkers. There are reports from several Russian regions that the basements of state-managed residential buildings are being inspected more frequently, or that air-raid shelters are being inspected. It was apparently noticed that many shelters are not operational.
According to official sources from the individual government districts, the checks are routine checks, but the anonymous whistleblowers from the Russian authorities paint a different picture at Bloomberg. The measures are explicitly about ensuring “that the civil defense infrastructure is ready for use in the event of a major conflict”. After the mishaps in calling up reservists, the Russian authorities said they “didn’t want to take any more risks”.
Putin’s Ukraine invasion has long since triggered a “broad militarization of Russian society.” Rainer Munz can confirm this impression. “We see that with the important propagandists. For example with Margarita Simonian, head of the major broadcaster RT. She recently recalled a great Soviet song in the fight against National Socialism: Get up, you giant country.”
Russian society is becoming increasingly geared towards war. This fuels insecurity among the people in Russia, who seem to be looking for protection themselves. The Russian news portal RBK reports that the demand for private bunkers is increasing. The first peak in demand occurred immediately after the invasion on February 24, the second after Putin’s mobilization on September 21.
The company “Bunker House”, for example, counted 430 percent more inquiries than usual in September. Company founder Nikita Malezhik is quoted as saying that there was no such demand even immediately after the start of the war.
According to industry experts, people in southern and western Russia are particularly interested in a private bunker. However, very few would actually buy an air-raid shelter because the shelters are quite expensive.
But in Moscow, too, people are apparently concerned. “Bloomberg” quotes a real estate agent from the capital as saying that her customers in Moscow are currently showing increased interest in houses or apartments with a bunker in the building.
Although Ukraine is believed to be attacking Russian territory, it is only targeting military targets, such as drones or artillery fire. “When strategic bombers launch from Russia’s hinterland to attack Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, then of course that’s a veritable military goal to prevent worse things from happening,” explains security expert Christian Mölling in the “Stern” podcast “Ukraine – the location”. It is crucial not to attack civilians or civilian supply facilities. According to Mölling, the Ukrainians would stick to that.
Military expert Carlo Masala from the Bundeswehr University also made it clear in the podcast that Ukrainian attacks on military targets in Russia were legitimate. “It’s the only way to hinder the supply of Russian armed forces in Ukraine itself.”
So the war has long since arrived on Russian soil as well, but that is solely due to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, where people actually need bunkers because they live in constant fear and danger from Russian attacks. Air raid shelters save lives every day in Ukraine. The extremely low-lying subway stations also regularly serve as shelters for the residents of the big cities. Kyiv even has the deepest metro station in the world. In Russia, the subway stations are also particularly deep underground.
