Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the construction of a new bomb shelter at the country’s most elite hospital where high-ranking officials are treated, a government website said. A bomb shelter at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital has been ordered to be built and is scheduled to be completed by December this year.
The cost of the project is estimated to be 35 million rubles ($431,000), independent Russian news outlet The Moscow Times reported, citing a Russian public procurement website. The outlet Mediazona reported that senior Russian officials are treated at the Moscow hospital. Vladimir Putin himself received treatment at the hospital, it added.
The bomb shelter will be designed to fit 800 people, including medical personnel and employees. It will also provide protection from radiation and have multiple entrances, an emergency exit and a complex ventilation system that is capable of cleaning the air “from gaseous weapons of mass destruction” and aerosols, it was reported. Medical staff will be trained to perform “procedures in wartime.”
Have such orders been given by Vladimir Putin before?
The Moscow Times earlier reported that the Kremlin ordered bomb shelters to be upgraded throughout Russia in October 2022. The publication reported that open-source data showed that the process of repairing bomb shelters has taken place all over Russia.
Why the decision has been taken by Vladimir Putin?
The development comes as Russia blamed Ukraine for a large-scale drone attack on Moscow—first since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion last February. The Russian president accused Kyiv of attempting to provoke a mirror response from Moscow. Russia’s defense ministry accused Ukraine of staging a “terrorist attack” with at least eight drones. Ukraine denied that it was responsible for the attacks. On May 3, two drones crashed into the Kremlin in Moscow for which Ukraine denied responsibility as well.
