Putin Building New Bomb Shelter for Russia's Elites

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the construction of a new bomb shelter at the country's most elite hospital where high-ranking officials are treated, according to a government website.

A bomb shelter at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital has been ordered to be built, with a scheduled completion date of December 20, 2023. 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.

Senior Russian officials are being treated at the Moscow hospital, according to independent Russian-language outlet Mediazona. Putin himself is reported to have received treatment at the hospital.

The bomb shelter will be designed to fit 800 people, including medical personnel and employees, and should be designed to provide protection from radiation. It will 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 should be equipped for medical staff to perform "medical procedures in wartime."

The Moscow Times previously reported that the Kremlin ordered bomb shelters to be upgraded throughout Russia.

In October 2022, the Kremlin issued a decree that ordered regions in western Russia to prepare for the possibility of strikes inside Russian territory. However, the publication reported that open-source data shows the process of repairing bomb shelters has taken place all over Russia.

Two months later, Sergei Poletykin, head of the regional head office of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, said bomb shelters were being prepared in the Moscow region capable of accommodating up to 15 million people .

The latest developments come as Russia blamed Ukraine for a large-scale drone attack on Moscow—the first since Putin's full-scale invasion of his neighboring country began last February.

Putin accused Kyiv of attempting to provoke a mirror response from Moscow after Russia's Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of staging a "terrorist attack" on Tuesday morning with at least eight drones, which caused minor damage.

Ukraine has denied that it was responsible for the attacks.

The targets of the drone attack in Moscow included a residence of Putin and the mansions of his entourage on Rublyovka, reported the independent Russian Telegram channel "We can explain", which analyzed where the drones were spotted.

And on May 3, two drones crashed into the Kremlin in Moscow. Ukraine denied responsibility.

Putin said this week that "there is still work to be done" on Moscow's air defense systems.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

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