Vladimir Putin’s massive, triple-decker war room.

MOSCOW — “Gentlemen. You can’t fight in here. This is the war room!”

It could have beena scene straight out of “Dr. Strangelove” when President Vladimir V. Putin steppedinto the Russian Ministry of Defense’s brand new, three-tiered, multibillion-dollar controlcenterthis week, fora warbriefing that had its fair share of movie-like pageantry.

On movie-theater-size screens, live broadcasts showed long-range strategic bombers taking off from Russian air bases to fly sorties over Syria. Putin instructed commanders in Syria to “make contact with the French and work with them as allies” as Russia seeks a central role in a proposed anti-terrorist coalition.

But the real star of the show may have been the building itself, which is designed to bea new nerve center for the Russian military that will coordinate military action around the world, includingballistic missile launches and strategic nucleardeployments.

The buildingis roughly the equivalent oftheU.S. National Military Command Centerused…