Admiral Vladimir Masorin, the commander of the Russian navy, on Friday called for Russia to establish a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean to protect its strategic interests in the area. Speaking at the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, where Russia houses its Black Sea fleet, Admiral Masorin said: "The Mediterranean is an important theatre of operations . . . We must restore a permanent presence in the region", according to RIA-Novosti, the Russian news agency.
But Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based military expert, said Admiral Masorin's remarks were "wishful thinking" and reflected Russia's desire to restore Soviet military might. "What on earth would we need this for now? It would be expensive and would stretch the resources of our run-down navy to the limit. Our surface fleet looks pretty large on paper. But it is questionable how many vessels can actually sail," he said.
Mr Felgenhauer said the navy, the most expensive branch of the military, was constantly competing with the army and air force for extra funds.
Mr Putin appointed Admiral Masorin in 2005, with instructions to revive the navy, badly neglected since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Last month Admiral Masorin announced plans to build a new base for nuclear submarines on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian far east. But Mr Felgenhauer said Russia, which this week announced a three-year delay in construction of a $1.5bn (1.1bn, £740m) aircraft carrier for India, did not have the capacity to build ships or naval facilities rapidly.
During the cold war Russia maintained a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean serviced out of the Syrian port of Tartus to shadow the US Sixth Fleet. Tartus still provides technical services to the Russian fleet, but no vessels are stationed there permanently.
The Russian navy already participates in the Nato Active Endeavour anti-terrorism operations in the Mediterranean.
Admiral Masorin said a naval presence was crucial for the protection of growing volumes of Russian oil and gas supplies delivered to ports in the region by new export pipelines.
None of the pipelines run through the Med.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2007 00:00 ||
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Russ also desires to keep 12-15 modern diesel subs there in the region as well. *RIAN > USA's failure to prolong START-1 is "A FATAL MISTAKE", wid dire consequences for US-Russ relations + entire world.
#2
Joe, I think that you have it reverse. The failure was not US', but Russian. Also, it is not in any form "fatal" to US, although it is not desirable state of affairs and may or may not have some serious consequences. But you are projecting too much of a clout on Russians... in my view they roar a bit over their capabilities and their fleet has a good potential to serve as a teaching tool for future underwater archeologists.
#3
good potential to serve as a teaching tool for future underwater archeologists
excellent snark!
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/04/2007 11:18 Comments ||
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Jeebus, Steve, I knew the Russians could barely afford to keep the bilge pumps running but that photo is a real mind-blower. There's three or four semi-submerged vessels, not to mention how all of the ships are in contact with each other. That's got to be causing some major damage by itself. Even though it's a satellite photo, you can actually see the rust on some boats. That site is going to be heavily polluted for centuries. Once again, communism leaves its usual mark stain on the environment.
#5
There are places in the bays that the Russians store their old nuke subs {which they use as local power plants for the bases, while they rot in place}that have mud so contaminated with toxic chemicals, metals, and radiation that any testing equipment used on samples from said locations is destroyed after use. Plus the testers themselves use full NBC protective gear when running the tests. The leached out uranium levels in some of those ghost fleet bays is 3-4 times higher than the Superfund sites at Oak Ridge.
China on Friday announced new regulations to tighten controls over Tibet, saying, "All the reincarnations of living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism must get government approval, otherwise they are illegal or invalid," state media reported.
"Look for the union label. Or else."
China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) issued a set of regulations on reincarnation of Tibetan living Buddhas, which will take effect as of September 1, according to Xinhua News Agency. The regulations require that a temple which applies for reincarnation of a living Buddha must be "legally-registered venues for Tibetan Buddhism activities and are capable of fostering and offering proper means of support for the living Buddha," SARA said in a statement. "The selection of reincarnates must preserve national unity and solidarity of all ethnic groups and the selection process cannot be influenced by any group or individual from outside the country." Tibet became an administrative district directly under the central authorities of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama fled from Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. The central government views the Dalai Lama as the leader of a Tibetan independence movement.
The Turkish authorities have detained 41 illegal migrants who were on their way to Europe. A Turkish security official said in press release Friday that the infiltrators had been captured near the Edirne province by the Greek borders, adding that they were of various nationalities: Iraqis, Somalis, Mauritanians, Syrians and Palestinians. They were being interrogated. Thousands of illegal migrants manage to reach Greece and other European countries through Turkey annually.
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 03 Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will travel to Iran next week for a state visit, Iranian state media reported. The visit, which will take place on Wednesday, will be the second by al-Maliki to Iran as Prime Minister.
He will meet and hold talks with senior Iranian officials on Iran-Iraq economic and political ties, the official news agency IRNA said.
The Iraqi Prime Minister last visited Iran in September. Prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, al-Maliki lived in Iran for some two decades.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/04/2007 01:43 ||
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Last week Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak controversially referred to Malaysia, which includes 40% non-Muslims, as an Islamic state. "Islam is the official religion and we are an Islamic state," Najib said.
Najib needs to be taken seriously. His voice is largely unopposed and Malaysia's crappy track record with respect to fighting terrorism must begin to be regarded as either tacit approval or covert facilitation.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Admiral Vladimir Masorin, the commander of the Russian navy, on Friday called for Russia to establish a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean to protect its strategic interests in the area. Speaking at the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, where Russia houses its Black Sea fleet, Admiral Masorin said: "The Mediterranean is an important theatre of operations . . . We must restore a permanent presence in the region", according to RIA-Novosti, the Russian news agency.
China on Friday announced new regulations to tighten controls over Tibet, saying, "All the reincarnations of living Buddhas of Tibetan Buddhism must get government approval, otherwise they are illegal or invalid," state media reported.
