The revelation builds on extensive research in more than two million documents from Russian military procurements, which Danwatch systematically collected from a public database over many months during 2024. The Russian authorities have repeatedly tried to restrict access to the database, but we managed to obtain the documents using a series of complex computer scripts and a network of servers in Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The documents show that starting in 2018, the Defence Ministry in Moscow began placing thousands of individual orders for materials to Object 1335, and that the military during the following years until 2024\u2014and possibly even late\u2014has expanded and fortified the underground complex, from where the Russian forced will be able to command a nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to leading experts and senior sources in the Russian military, the purpose of the work on Object 1335 has been to equip the facility with a modern version of a notorious Cold War system which, with a high degree of automation, can bypass normal command channels and communicate directly with the missiles that carry nuclear warheads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sources describe the system as the crown jewel of Russia\u2019s nuclear deterrent: the central node in a nuclear retaliation system designed to relay launch orders across Russia to every missile in the country\u2019s nuclear arsenal if Russia is ever subjected to a surprise attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The system\u2019s technical name is Perimetr. In the West, it is known as the Dead Hand<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on years of research, the revelation now prompts some of the world\u2019s leading experts to sound the alarm. The system, originally built and activated in the mid-1980s, is a product of the extreme Cold War paranoia that prevailed at the time. For that reason, it raises serious concerns that Moscow is once again using the system at a time of renewed conflict between East and West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Presented with our research, Jeffrey Lewis, a lecturer in nuclear disarmament and arms control at Stanford University and one of the world\u2019s leading experts on nuclear security policy, is convinced the findings are indeed real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe simplest explanation is that the Russians are probably putting the Dead Hand back into operation. It’s a big claim, but sometimes things are what they look like,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “This is known to be the command centre for the Strategic Missile Forces. And it’s where the Dead Hand is headquartered. So the fact that it is apparently being heavily revamped and going back into operation suggests it’s going to do what it was designed to do in the first place. There are a lot of signals coming out of Russia that the Dead Hand might be put back into operation, particularly because I think Russia is worried about a number of US capabilities,\u201d says Jeffrey Lewis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom R\u00f8seth, expert on Russian security policy and chief instructor in intelligence studies at the Norwegian Staff College, also believes everything suggests that Perimetr has been modernised with new technology. However, he places great emphasis on the fact that the system was designed for retaliation and not for a first strike, and therefore he primarily sees the modernisation in the mountain as a form of protection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt suggests they are securing the facility against all kinds of attacks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He points out that the United States has developed powerful \u201cbunker buster\u201d type weapons that can hit heavily protected targets deep underground. The Americans have used such weapons in the war against Iran, where even deep underground facilities were hit and damaged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo protect Object 1335 and the command-and-control facilities of the nuclear forces, they therefore have to dig even deeper and reinforce the site even more,\u201d says Tom R\u00f8seth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perimetr was originally designed in the 1970s as an extreme element of what became known as Mutually Assured Destruction<\/em>\u2014a strategic doctrine intended to prevent the great powers from attacking each other with nuclear weapons, because an attack on the opponent would inevitably mean being hit just as hard yourself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As a kind of ultimate insurance policy, Russian scientists built a complex system intended to guarantee nuclear retaliation in the case that Russia\u2019s political and military leadership were wiped out in a surprise attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the Kremlin received warning that hostile nuclear missiles were incoming, the leadership would have only a few minutes to decide whether the threat was real and whether to order a counterstrike before the missiles would hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Perimetr, they could instead delegate the decision to the protected bunker Object 1335, from which the system would monitor whether the country was in fact under attack. If contact with the leadership was cut and the system detected seismic tremors and radiation indicating a nuclear detonation on Russian territory, the soldiers in the bunker would be able to launch an all-encompassing retaliatory strike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This delegation of the launch order was meant to help the Kremlin cool down and avoid reacting to false alarms, of which there have historically been several.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But according to Jeffrey Lewis, the reactivation of Perimetr nevertheless represents a dramatic development, because even high up in Western intelligence services it was difficult to believe that a semi-automated system with such capabilities for destruction could have existed at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven the US intelligence community did not want to believe that Dead Hand actually existed. You can still find people from back then who worked in government who will simply refuse to believe the Soviets ever built it, even though it is thoroughly documented,\u201d says Jeffrey Lewis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After being presented with our research, he has consulted sources in and outside Russia, and they have, according to him, confirmed the suspicion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is so hard to believe they did it the first time, and it will be very hard for people to believe they are doing it again. But I think they are.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n That assessment is supported by Andy Weber, who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs under the Obama administration and for more than five years advised the president on nuclear weapons issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also believes the evidence points to Russia having reactivated Perimetr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have no reason to believe it’s not that. Putin is very paranoid about decapitation strikes. He always has been. So it makes sense that he would prioritise this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The complex in Mount Kosvinsky has always been a \u201cvery, very high priority\u201d for Western intelligence services, Andy Weber says. According to him, the upgrade of the facility at Object 1335 should be seen as part of a broader build-up of Russia\u2019s nuclear forces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt tracks with Putin’s increased investment in the last decade in nuclear delivery systems, warheads and command-and-control systems. Because the Russian Federation’s reliance on nuclear weapons has been increasing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The wooden houses that make up the small village of Kytlym are dark and weather-beaten. Endless conifer forests and impassable terrain stretch for hundreds of kilometres in almost every direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The village is extremely isolated, deep in the Russian wilderness. Winters are long and harsh here, and for decades connection to the outside world has been virtually non-existent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you follow a small road that winds from the village through the forest and past the exhausted platinum mines to the east, you are led to a small car park and a military checkpoint. Here, at the foot of Mount Kosvinsky, lies the military base that houses the special military unit 20003. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the far end of the base, behind yet another checkpoint and next to a high-mounted machine-gun tower, a massive iron door leads into the mountain\u2019s interior\u2014the gateway to a vast underground complex of buildings and tunnel systems, hidden beneath several hundred metres of solid rock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is from this heavily protected Object 1335 that the Strategic Missile Forces will be able to coordinate and fight a nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For that reason, the complex in Mount Kosvinsky is also one of the most secret places in Russia. In the more than 40 years since the first tunnels were dug in the early 1980s, not the slightest detail about the facility\u2019s interior has leaked out. While we have managed to find hundreds of images from the military unit outside the mountain, only a single one appears to come from the tunnels inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But former soldiers who served in unit 20003 describe the bunker complex to Danwatch, The Sunday Times and Dossier Center as \u201clarge scale\u201d. One even says that the distances in the tunnel system are so vast that buses run inside Mount Kosvinsky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That is all they are willing to divulge, because these are, after all, military secrets, another explains. If they are caught talking, they could be spending a long time in prison\u2014or worse. <\/p>\n\n\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/danwatch.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2039\/09\/old_exit_source_\u041b\u0438\u043d\u0438\u044f-\u041e\u0433\u043d\u044f-Fire-Line_ok-ru-1024x770-1.jpg\")
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Hard to believe<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The secret inside the mountain<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n