The Russian Defense Ministry will complete reconstruction of six aerodromes in the Arctic in 2016-2017, Defense Minister Army General Sergei Shoigu said.

"We are working on six aerodromes simultaneously and are going to finish some of them this year but most of them in 2016-17," he said. "First, there is the Tiksi aerodrome, then we will do the joint-use aerodrome together with our mining companies, including Yamal LNG," Shoigu told a news conference at the Russian Geographical Society.

The Russian Special Construction Agency (Spetsstroy) said earlier that nine aerodromes would be put into operation in the Arctic by 2018.

The minister also said that the Defense Ministry had nearly finished building a military base on Kotelny Island in the Arctic.

"We make no secret of it: we have virtually completed a military base on the New Siberian Islands, on Kotelny Island," Shoigu said. "It is such a big base, nothing of the kind was built in Soviet days. It is a modern facility with state-of-the-art equipment."

He added that a slightly smaller base was going to be established on Wrangel Island, with other bases on Mys Shmidta, the eastern Chukotka coast and the Kuril Islands.