Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday, February 26, 2024, on the administrative-military division of Russia, which provides for, among other things, the creation of the Leningrad and Moscow military districts.
According to the decree published on the government website of legal documents, the Leningrad Military District includes the Republics of Karelia and Komi, the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Murmansk, Novgorod, Pskov regions, and the city of St. Petersburg, and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
Putin abolished the status of the Northern Fleet as a strategic multi-service territorial association, and the decree declared that the clauses that previously granted the Northern Fleet this status are invalid. At the same time, the territories of the Northwestern Federal District that previously belonged to the Northern Fleet – Komi, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, and the Nenets Okrug – were included in the Leningrad Military District.
The Moscow Military District was created within the administrative borders of the Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kaluga, Kostroma, Kursk, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula, Yaroslavl regions, and the city of Moscow.
The four new Russian regions – the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions – became part of the Southern Military District.
Last year, the Russian Defense Ministry announced large-scale changes in the Russian army for the period from 2023 to 2026, including the formation of the armed forces, increasing their number, and changing the military-administrative division of Russia.
