The fleet from the Black Sea much ado about nothing

According to the data supplied by the General Staff of the Fleet, in 2007, the unit contributed to the Ukraine’s budget with over 17 million dollar. In this sum there are also included the tax on incomes realized by natural persons, the profit tax, the value added tax, taxes for using the natural resources, custom tax and other payments. During the last years, the fleet budget was raised to about 232 million dollar. For its daily needs, the fleet staff buys from Ukraine the biggest part of the products – fuels and materials for maintenance of the fight technique, medicines, food, coal. “Just the fuel costs yearly about 16 million dollar, other six million go on food, and the same on medicine”, a representative of the Fleet, recently stated for the RIA Novosti press agency. In the Fleet units and enterprises work more then 20.000 citizens of Ukraine, which receive wages paid by Russia, significantly more raised that the regional average indexes, and which last year were about 61 million dollar. In the same time, the Fleet employees build a lot on the Sevastopol territory. “With our money were built about 2.000 square meters of houses for the sailors and the employees of the unit, a kindergarten with 90 places, a military school with 660 places.” To all these there are added those 98 million dollar paid monthly by Russia to Ukraine’s treasury as rent for renting the Sevastopol harbor.  The contract ends in 2017.

“Bunch of rusty iron”

Here is how recently described, Aleksandr Karavaev, expert of the Center for studying the CIS countries, the state of the Fleet from the Black Sea. “In great part, today the fleet is a bunch of rusty iron that has lost from its strategic importance, closed inside the Black Sea. In the best case, the Fleets represent an operational unit of relative dimensions and that has in endowment a cruiser - Moscow, two submarine (eight are in service) and seven air assaults ships, two submarine on diesel (Alrosa and B-380), a few rug boats and wearer of missiles. It doesn’t have military aviation and disposes of a marine infantry brigade reduced with a fifth”, the analyst wrote in the journal Nezavisimaia Gazeta. Reading these lines, involuntary a question is raised: how real are the statements of the military marine commander of Russia, Vladimir Visotki, which pronounced for supplementing the number of the Fleet ships from the Black Sea to 100 devices and that didn’t exclude the possibility of dislocating the base in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Syrian harbor Tartus. How do the Russian experts react? From an acute optimism to one rather polite?  

“It’s insufficient”

“The soviet fleet was built in base of four programs for ten years, from 1946 till 1986. There were public programs, which allowed the set up of oceanic fleets, the second from the world. Gorbaciov refused to continue. Hardly in 2006 was approved a program. The problem is that if before those four programs were financed from the public budget, now there is only the budget of the Ministry of Defense, which doesn’t exceed 30 billion dollar. It’s insufficient. England and France invest in this purpose 40-50- billion each. Our state has abandoned the idea of building an oceanic fleet. That’s why you don’t have what to bring additional into Sevastopol. Russia doesn’t have at the Black Sea a shipyard. The state must remember of the fleets. The state must build a real fleet, not the Ministry of Defense. Is the effective increased? How? Moving the fleet from the Baltic Sea and from the Caspian Sea? On the one from Baltic we’ve let dilapidated. At Kalingrad there are a few ships”, Ivan Kapitanet, president of the military marine section within the Academy of science of Russia, former commander of the fleet from North and Baltic Sea, said in this sense.

Station point

In what concerns another place of dislocating of the Fleet from the Black Sea, the same Kapitanet commented in an interview for the Moscow press: “Tartus? The arrangement of the harbor started in 1970 - 1973, when also started the reorganization of the base from Banias, in Syria. Since then, we ordered escadrilles from the Mediterranean Sea.  Such matters should be first of all discussed at governmental level. Before, there were anchored our ships, the moorings being still operational. But an independent fleet doesn’t have conditions in order to proceed. Moreover, great part of the political contacts of the time have lost.  There are other times. The world conjuncture is different; the aims of the countries from that area are different. All these must be renewed. It’s needed time and a lot of money”, the officer in reserve recognized. The newspaper RBK Daily reminded on this base that in soviet times, in the Tartus harbor was built a location of technical and material maintenance of the military fleets of Russia. Now, there was dislocated a point of temporary station for about ten fight ships of the Fleet from the Black Sea and three floating digs PM-61. Moreover, the Russian experts started works for the harbor’s extension and for building of some moorings. In the future, Tartus can claim the statute of a station point, but not the main one. For this are needed at least 10-15 years. And the contract with Ukraine ends in 2017.

Political scandal

And here begins the scandal. More exactly, the scandal steeped into another stage, one extremely sensitive and from where things could develop in several directions. All depends of the real purposes of the pawns behind the curtain. So, the situation can calm suddenly, with explanations incapable of convincing, but enough for the given context. As well however it could be continued on escalade, with results difficult to anticipate. In the center there are unmeasured prides, but also all sorts of interests. The moment was well chosen – at Kiev, on base of the restless conflict between the President Viktor Yushchenko and the premier Iulya Timoshenko, the dispute regarding the destiny of the Fleet from the Black Sea is used, on one hand as screen for “hiding” the real problems, and on the other hand as electoral instrument for the presidential elections of next year.  Hot theme, with hold on the public, and as a result with guaranteed effect. For example, the adhesion of Ukraine to NATO has suddenly another look and dimension, the scandal with the Fleet being faced “at package” concerning the future of the Cimea Peninsula.

“Serious mistake”

Another wound never healed and eternal incited by provocative statements. As were, for example, the statements of the mayor of Moscow, Iuri Lujkov. Present at the ceremonies dedicated to anniversary of 225 years from setting up the fleet, he hinted that sooner or later, Crimea will belong again to Russia. He said then, he repeated before the informal summit of CIS which carried out its works on Friday, to Sankt-Petersburg and which occasioned on Friday the first meeting of the new Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, with Yushchenko. And the matter of the Fleet was on the agenda. However, regardless of the approach angle, Russia gets out with the image seriously crumpled and with withers hope of turning up in front of the Occident different as in reality. Because it is surprised of the react of the State Duma (the inferior chamber of the Russian parliament) which proposed the exit of Russia from the Basic Treaty with Ukraine, the Supreme Rada asked to the presidency to notice UNO. And Yushchenko draw up the attention to Moscow to abstain from committing some “serious mistakes”, because Ukraine will never drop to its aims of North-Atlantic integration.