Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has traveled to the Arctic to inspect armed forces deployed there, the Russian ministry said today, in an area where Moscow has built up its military power in recent years.

Shoigu “inspected remote military units of the Northern Fleet in the Arctic” and the preparation of soldiers for “defense of particularly important facilities” in this region of strategic importance for Moscow, the ministry said.

In particular, the Russian Minister of Defense visited the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, in the north of Russia.

Shoigu, accompanied by the head of Russia’s Rosatom nuclear agency, Alexei Likhachev, also inspected a large nuclear weapons test site where the former Soviet Union had conducted nearly all of its bomb tests.

“The main mission of the Russian test site is currently the preparation and testing of advanced weapons and military equipment,” the ministry added.

Russia has been building up its military presence in the Arctic in recent years, before its invasion of Ukraine. It has reconstructed in this remote area several bases that had been abandoned since the Soviet Union period and has developed advanced weapons such as S-400 anti-aircraft systems.

The region, in addition to its huge hydrocarbon reserves, is also of interest to Moscow because of the Northeast Passage, which – due to global warming and melting ice – is turning into an important sea route between Europe and Asia.

Russia views the NATO accession of two other Arctic countries, Finland in April and the planned accession of Sweden, as a threat to its own security.