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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Kremlin 'Suspends' Use of Tartus Naval Base in Syria |
| 2012-08-26 |
| Russia has suspended use of its naval base in Tartus, Syria. But it refuses to rule out using it in the future. In addition, the central principles of cooperation with Damascus in the military sphere have been set: Moscow will support the Assad regime primarily at the political level, intelligence and humanitarian spheres. There are no large weapons shipments planned. Nezavisimaya Gazeta obtained these reports from military and diplomatic sources who participated in recent talks with Syria's official delegation, which visited Moscow earlier in the week. Thus it has now become clear why naval groups from the three fleets (Northern, Baltic and Black Sea) that had gathered in the Mediterranean unexpectedly broke up, and the General Staff has changed its plans to base the Northern Fleet in the Black Sea. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, there is still a chance of achieving Syrian national reconciliation, and therefore given the circumstances, military support for the Assad regime is not the main objective. In contrast to the West, which has begun actively arming the opposition, Russia has deliberately withdrawn practically all of its military forces from the Mediterranean. Thus the original format of the “Caucasus 2012” naval exercise [video below], in which a detachment of warships from the Northern Fleet consisting of three large amphibious ships [Ropucha class landing ships] - the Alexander Otrakovsky, the George Pobedonosets, and the Kondopoga - which visited Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk on August 11-12 and was to participate in the maneuvers in the coming weeks, has been changed. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 As per WORLD MIL FORUM, IIUC Russia is repor sending a three-ship RussNav formation to Okhostsk from Vladivistok vee the South Kurils, aka former Japanese Northern Territories, as part of a formal Red Army celebration. The move repor has upset Tokyo which still claims the Russian South Kurils as Japanese territory. FYI the RussNav formation repor includes a "KALAR"-class fleet tugboat, which may or may NOT mean good tidings for Russia given its recent history of naval breakdowns among major surface warfare vessels at sea. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-08-26 23:49 |
| #1 An interesting development, although I'm not convinced the suspension is permament. AFAIK Russia has not abandoned its historical desire for Russian-dominated, iff not per se Russian- controlled/sovereign, strategic corridors or accesses to the Med. Russia is repor in negotiations to establish naval base andor to acquire port rights wid both Greece proper + Greek Cyprus. Unlike the US-NATO, the Cold War-era USSR has had mostly bad luck in its efforts to procure and maintain overseas bases for its Navy - it may be initially successful in acquiring them, but then departs or abandons them after a relatively short time. Post-USSR Mama Russia's/ Russ Federation's luck doesn't seem to be any better. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2012-08-26 22:03 |