Russian President Vladimir Putin has been quietly upgrading a secret, Cold War-era command center deep inside a mountain that can withstand American bunker-buster bombs and guarantee mutually assured destruction in the event of nuclear war.
A recent investigation into the Kremlin bunker at Kosvinsky Kamen mountain, in the Urals 800 miles east of Moscow, revealed that the Russian Ministry of Defense has been working on a major modernization project at the site since 2018, according to The Sunday Times, Danwatch, and Dossier Center.
The deep-dive included the first images from inside the doomsday bunker, known as Facility 1335, which included an ominous staging area covered in posters of missiles, explosions, and Russian troops.
Facility 1335 was among the bomb-proof shelters that were built across Russia during the Cold War as part of the Kremlin’s Perimeter system, known as Dead Hand in the West, which was put in place so that Moscow’s nuclear forces could be activated no matter what in the event of an atomic war.
Kosvinsky Kamen is buried under more than 1,000 feet of solid granite, meaning it is protected from America’s current arsenal of penetrating, bunker-buster bombs.
While little was known about the base since its construction in the 1970s, the new report revealed that the facility has at least 24 underground rooms, with sprawling tunnels measuring some 1.5 miles away from the entrances.
One undated image from inside the tunnels shows a person standing in the massive hallway with no end in sight and tire tracks behind them.
A slew of new procurement contracts related to Facility 1335, dated between 2018 and 2024, also suggest the Kremlin is working to upgrade the facility to withstand a modern war.
The contracts included 24,000 tons of steel, more than 62,000 tons of cement, around 372 miles of electrical cable, 21 electrical substations, 160 ventilation units, 95 pieces of heavy machinery, and 648 drilling tools.
Some of the ventilation units brought in were designed to protect against radioactive dust, with the Kremlin also bringing in new blast-resistant equipment and communication systems into the bunker.
Satellite images also revealed repair and construction work across different segments of the bunker, including the construction of new entrances between 2022 and 2025.
The equipment being brought in likely means that Russia is digging even deeper to expand the facility and reinforcing its defenses, Tom Roseth, expert in Russian security policy at the Norwegian Staff College, told The Times.
“The expansion of Facility 1335 follows a major upgrade of Russia’s nuclear forces, which has been given high priority within the Russian armed forces,” Roseth said.
“The Perimeter will once again be given priority now, in a more tense geopolitical situation in which Russia sees itself as being in conflict with the West,” he added.
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