Earlier, the Pentagon announced plans to deploy 250 tanks, armored vehicles and other military hardware to seven European countries. In addition, units in the size of a company or a battalion will be temporarily deployed in Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Germany.
According to Nenashev, the development of the Baltic Fleet is a matter of Russia’s entire strategic defense along its Western borders.
"The Baltic direction will be strengthened and will play the key role because all the hostile trends are coming from the US and Western Europe which we believe could possibly threaten us. This is why during the 21st century, the Baltic Fleet will again dominate over the Trans-Atlantic region," he told RIA Novosti.
Nenashev added that despite its small size the Baltic Sea always played a key geopolitical role in the Atlantic.
Over the past 25 years, the Russian submarine forces have been seriously exhausted, and now it is important to bolster the submarine capabilities of the Baltic Fleet, he said.
According to open source data, currently there are only two ageing submarines in operation in the Baltic Fleet.
Nenashev also stressed the need to develop the naval and field-based aviation along with airfield facilities in the Kaliningrad and Leningrad Region.
"The purpose is not to militarize this region, but to make it reasonably able to defend itself," he added.
He also considered it necessary to enhance regional coastal defense in terms of missile and artillery systems, radio-electronic warfare and aerospace defense.
