Romania has begun to construct what may become NATO's largest European base near the Black Sea port city of Constanta. How could the base affect Russia's security?
Romania has kicked off a $2.7 billion project to expand the Romanian Air Force 57th Air Base Mihail Kogalniceanu in order to accommodate up to 10,000 NATO soldiers, as well as new runways, weapons platforms, and hangars for military aircraft. The upgraded base is expected to have a total perimeter of 30 kilometers and cover an area of roughly 3,000 hectares.
"NATO has pursued and is pursuing a policy of expanding its influence in zones that pose a threat to Russia. Apart from the bases in Kosovo, which the Americans have built over the past 10 years, there has never been such a serious facility in the Balkans," Leonid Reshetnikov, a retired lieutenant general of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), told Sputnik.
Located near the Black Sea port of Constanta, the new NATO base will be built just 130 km from Ukraine's border and around 300 km from the port city of Odessa. This means that the transatlantic alliance would move even closer to Russia, given that the nation's Crimean Republic shares a maritime border with Romania.
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