At the beginning of the new, 21st century, Russian President Vladimir Putin became a frequent visitor to the South Ural ski resort "Abzakovo", located about 60 km from Magnitogorsk. Neither Putin himself nor his aides were able to explain to the public why the head of state chose this place. Officially, Putin liked to ski there. But there is also an unofficial version. Thus, the president came to supervise the completion of the construction of a secret underground city located in the highest mountain of the South Ural massif - Yamantau (translated from Bashkir - "bad head", height 1640 m).
Greetings from America
The Americans were the first to tell the whole world about the existence of a secret mountain facility in the South Urals. On April 16, 1996, The New York Times published an article reporting on a mysterious military base under construction in Russia. “In a secret project reminiscent of the eerie periods of the Cold War, Russia is building a giant military complex underground in the Ural Mountains, according to Western officials and witnesses in Russia. A railway and a motorway are suitable for a huge complex hidden inside the Yamantau mountain in the Beloretsk region (today - the city of Mizhgirya - Ed.) In the South Urals. Thousands of workers are involved in the work,”the newspaper wrote.
The topic was picked up by other foreign media. On April 1, 1997, The Washington Times ran an article “Moscow Builds Bunkers in Case of Nuclear Attack,” which stated that “while the United States has closed most of these facilities, Russia is rapidly pursuing an expensive program to build underground shelters, tunnels and command posts inherited from the Cold War. In particular, work continues on the creation of an underground command post for strategic forces in the Urals near the city of Beloretsk."
Foreign publications tried to get comments from Russian officials. But, naturally, no intelligible explanations followed. Russian journalists did not pick up the sensation about the secret facility in Mount Yamantau: several materials followed, in which they made assumptions about the mining of uranium ore in the South Ural mountain, and about the storage of state values, and about the food reserve. Among the others, a version of the construction of a bunker for the Russian government in case of a nuclear war was put forward. But little by little, the topic of a special facility in Yamantau faded away.
At the top of the mountain there is a helipad, at any moment it can receive a government helicopter with passenger number 1.
Promotional video:
Spy Tourists
Meanwhile, unlike the general public, Yamantau was not forgotten by tourists who annually climb this mountain. They say that since the beginning of the 2000s, measures to protect the vicinity of Yamantau have tightened. On the one hand, the mountain is located on the territory of the South Ural State Reserve (they say that the reserve was established there for a reason). But not only huntsmen, but also the military are patrolling the vicinity of Yamantau.
“In the area of the Yamantau special facility, you must be careful not to make noise, not to make smoky fires and not to betray your presence in any other bad way. Otherwise, you risk getting acquainted with the life and traditions of special forces, giving them the footage (money, knife, cigarettes), becoming hoarse, proving that you are not a spy from Alabama, and if in the end you are still released or handed over to the rangers (and not will be shot), you will still be sincerely grateful to them,”the tourists share their advice.
Those who have reached Yamantau peak say that it is a huge rocky plateau, with a small pile of rocky outliers in the center. “At the top until the beginning of the 90s. there was a military unit serving a concreted helipad and military special equipment. After the military, ruins of former buildings, puddles of fuel oil and piles of rusted iron remained on the top of the mountain,”eyewitnesses say.
We saw tourists and mines leading into the mountains. But most of the people who have visited Yamantau claim that uranium mines are most likely located there. “We found pool sections there, separated by concrete partitions. Most likely, they were intended for pre-transportation storage of uranium ore,”says one of the tourists. “However, even the inhabitants of Mizhgirya, located at the foot of the mountain, do not fully know what is hidden in the depths of Yamantau Mountain. The Yamantau facility has a status of high secrecy - this is a fact, everything else is just speculation and assumptions,”says another.
The underground city is provided with all communications, including electricity
Secret city
But the observers were wrong in their assumptions. In Yamantau Mountain, not mines were built, but a real underground city. Our agency managed to contact several builders who took part in its construction. All persons related to Yamantau signed a nondisclosure agreement, so their names were not disclosed.
So, as one of the participants in the events said, the construction of an underground base in Mount Yamantau, in fact, began in the Soviet years, during the Cold War. The facility was designed and built by the Construction Directorate-30, subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. The office is based in the closed city of Mizhgirya (formerly Belorets-16, also called the city of Solnechny). The Construction Department-30 specializes in the construction of facilities and structures for underground and surface placement, and conducts large-sized underground construction: in this area, US-30 is one of the largest construction organizations.
Work on the construction of the underground city was completed around 2002 (just at the time of Putin's frequent visits to Abzakovo). Since then, constant work has been carried out to maintain the complex (hence the increased security of the territory). A branch of the railway is connected to Mount Yamantau. A highway has been launched from Magnitogorsk.
“In the underground complex, which is divided into so-called“houses”, all the necessary infrastructure has been created: communications have been connected, life support systems have been established. All conditions have been created so that people can be in this underground city for at least six months without going to the surface,”says an eyewitness. According to another witness, the complex consists of a system of mines with a diameter of 30 meters and a total length of about 500 km.
An official explanation of the purpose for which the secret underground facility was built and is still maintained in Mount Yamantau, for which such unprecedented security measures are being taken, has not been obtained. President Vladimir Putin said nothing in today's annual message about whether Russia is in danger.
The city in the mountain is designed for the simultaneous residence of 300 thousand people (for example, 400 thousand people live in Magnitogorsk, and 1.5 million in Yekaterinburg).
