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The US has many military bases in Germany, e.g. 34 Army bases, Ramstein Airbase, etc.

Discounting politics, what would be judicial hurdles to setting up a Russian military base in Germany? Is there any law or international agreement that would not allow for this to happen?

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because its about the law rather than politics. Try on Law.SE. – Paul Johnson Aug 6 '19 at 15:05
  • @PaulJohnson good point :-) – y0m0mm4 Aug 6 '19 at 15:07
  • I don't know that Law.SE covers treaties. In any case, as this would be about law affecting a government, it is certainly on-topic here. – Brythan Aug 6 '19 at 15:08
  • @Brythan I'm new to this community. Has this never occured before? Sounds like there should be a Meta thread on this. – y0m0mm4 Aug 6 '19 at 15:27
  • This is an ongoing discussion that I would have thought clearly settled, but apparently others disagree. And there are several Meta. 1, 2, 3, 4. But not on the specific question of treaties. Maybe on Meta.Law.SE. – Brythan Aug 6 '19 at 15:46
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If you look at history, there were Russian/Soviet bases on German soil in the recent past. While Germany was divided into the FRG and the GDR, there was the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany in East Germany. The repatriation of these forces was still ongoing during the German Reunification and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which made them Russian bases on FRG territory.

Allowing new Russian bases could be considered as a breach of EU and NATO agreements, but leaving those is a theoretical option. The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany explicitly allows Germany to select a military alliance.

One might argue that the 1994 deadline for the withdrawal of the Soviet forces (Article 4) constitutes a ban on any new bases, but that would be stretching things.

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  • Although the treaty allows these bases only in the former FRG and forbids any foreign bases in the former GDR. – Martin Schröder Aug 6 '19 at 19:04
  • The second link is broken – Polygnome Aug 7 '19 at 8:16
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    Also, the 1994 deadline is part of another treaty, the Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Union der Sozialistischen Sowjetrepubliken über die Bedingungen des befristeten Aufenthalts und die Modalitäten des planmäßigen Abzugs der sowjetischen Truppen aus dem Gebiet der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (no idea how that is called in english). – Polygnome Aug 7 '19 at 8:21
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    @Polygnome, that one could presumably be changed by Germany and Russia. The Final Settlement has more signatories. – o.m. Aug 7 '19 at 15:28

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