Pechenga on Border with Finland and Norway Seeks Status of a Russian Closed Military Town

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 9 – Pechenga, a municipality on the border with Finland and Norway, is joining as the 29^th member the Russian Association for the Promotion of the Development of Closed Military Towns and thus benefit from the military investment that other such sites now enjoy.

            But Atle Staalesen of The Barents Observer says that Moscow adopted a list of such locations in 2001 and Pechenga is not on it and thus may be a member of the association without getting the benefits others do (ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/pecenga-prisoedinaetsa-k-gruppe-zakrytyh-voennyh-gorodov/452283).

            Moreover, there are two reasons to think that it isn’t going to get the injection of military money local officials hope for. On the one hand, the actual number of troops there has fallen since 2022, the result of many units being sent to fight in Ukraine and then now returning to Pechenga. (On those losses, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/11/closed-military-towns-in-russian-north.html.)

            And on the other, satellite photography does not show the kind of construction one might expect if more troops were going to be brought in soon, although this may be deceptive if Moscow wants to build up and then use expanded military units for a campaign against one or both of its neighbors.

            For background on Russia’s closed cities and what goes on in them, see the discussion of an unusual study of them as discussed at windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/11/closed-military-towns-in-russian-north.html.