Putin recreated the Moscow and Leningrad military districts
MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the re-establishment of the Moscow and Leningrad military districts. The document was published on the official legal information portal . The Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions became part of the Southern Military District.
The Leningrad Okrug included the Republic of Karelia, the Komi Republic, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kaliningrad, Leningrad, Murmansk, Novgorod and Pskov regions, the city of St. Petersburg, as well as the Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
The Moscow region includes Belgorod, Bryansk, Vladimir, Voronezh, Ivanovo, Kaluga, Kostroma, Kursk, Lipetsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tambov, Tver, Tula and Yaroslavl regions, as well as the city of Moscow.
The new districts included regions that previously belonged to the Western Military District and the Northern Fleet.
Southern Military District
The Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions became part of the Southern Military District.
"Establish the following military-administrative division of the Russian Federation: <...> Southern Military District - within the administrative boundaries of the Republic of Adygea, the Republic of Dagestan, the Donetsk People's Republic, the Republic of Ingushetia, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, the Republic of Kalmykia, the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, the Republic of Crimea, the Lugansk People's Republic Republic, the Republic of North Ossetia - Alania, the Chechen Republic, the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, the Astrakhan, Volgograd, Zaporozhye, Rostov and Kherson regions, the city of Sevastopol,” the decree says.
In February 2023, an updated map of military districts was published on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to which new regions of Russia entered the zone of responsibility of the Southern Military District.
Creation of new military districts
For the first time, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the military department’s plans to create two new military districts at a meeting of the department’s board in December 2022. In turn, Putin said in December 2023 that Russia is forced to create the Leningrad Military District due to Finland’s accession to NATO.