Russia is pulling troops to Finland's borders

Russia is increasing its military presence near the Finnish border, especially in the Petrozavodsk area. According to The Wall Street Journal, instead of being sent to the frontline in Ukraine, new Russian weapons are increasingly remaining in warehouses inside the country.

According to the publication, the Kremlin is actively upgrading railway tracks in the border regions with Finland and the Baltic states, building new barracks and firing ranges, and modernising weapons depots. According to analysts, this may indicate preparations for a possible confrontation with NATO.

New railway routes are being built along the border with Finland and Norway, as well as from St Petersburg to the Estonian border. At the same time, the existing lines are being actively expanded," says the newspaper.

Major Juha Kukkola, a professor at Finland's National Defence University and an expert on the Russian armed forces, stressed: "There are about a dozen areas along the border with Finland through which mechanised troops can pass. If construction or reconstruction of tracks starts there, it is worth paying attention to it."

In addition, the publication reports that Russia is adjusting its rearmament programme to equip troops stationed along the contact line with NATO with new systems. At the same time, old and refurbished Soviet weapons continue to flow to the Ukrainian front.

According to Daria Massicot, a senior research fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Development, cases of the latest Russian weapons appearing on the battlefield have been extremely rare recently.

As WSJ reminds us, in 2021, before a full-scale attack on Ukraine, Russia produced about 40 T-90M tanks annually. Today, production has risen to about 300 vehicles per year, but almost all of those tanks remain in-country, an unnamed senior Finnish army source said.