Peter the Great is about to be scrapped because his upgrades are too expensive. Photo: Polaris/eevine. life like Ekaterina Bogdasarova, a secular millionaire who married an influential governor, broke a bottle of champagne on the latest Kremlin submarine. This week comes at the end of a hot month for the Russian navy, which analysts say is often exposed as dilapidated and dysfunctional.
Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he pulled off a diplomatic masterstroke by ordering his Pacific Fleet, one of the Russian Navy's most powerful armadas, to go on exercises when China's defense minister was visiting Moscow earlier this month.
< p>He wanted to impress his ally. However, a few days after his order, the commander of the once fearsome Pacific Fleet was transferred to the position of curator of military gyms, and the flagship of the Russian Northern Fleet was scrapped.
Blake Herzinger, a military researcher at the US Center for Studies in Sydney, said this reflects a «below average level of leadership» in the Russian military.
deplorable state of the Russian navy,” he said.
The American Institute for the Study of War agreed. Dmitry Gorenburg from the Center for Naval Analysis in the United States said that the decision to appoint an admiral of the Baltic Fleet as the new commander of the Pacific Fleet indicates dissatisfaction with the Kremlin.
“ This is the first time since the late 1990s and early 2000s ”, he said.
Named after the defensive line of the Red Army from the Nazi invaders in 1941, the diesel-powered Mozhaisk can be armed with cruise missiles and is the fourth submarine built under the Kremlin’s Project 636.3 .
Problems facing Russian ships
The sophisticated ship represents how the Russian navy wants its enemies to see it, although the sorry state of its legacy of Soviet capital ships could be a more powerful image.
Last week, Russian media reported that the nuclear-powered Severny fleet, the Peter the Great is likely to be scrapped as it was too expensive to upgrade.
The cruiser, with a crew of 700 sailors, is the largest non-aircraft carrier warship in the world and was supposed to demonstrate power and Russian influence when it was launched in 1998.
But he never participated in battles, and now most likely he never will.
“The experience of repairing and modernizing the Admiral Nakhimov has shown that this is very costly,” the TASS agency reported.
“Admiral Nakhimov” is an analogue of the large cruiser of the Soviet project of the “Kirov” type, sent to the port in 1999 for repairs. He's still there.
Peter the Great, Kirov-class battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov, cruiser
There is the only aircraft carrier in Russia, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is famous for spewing black smoke while sailing. However, it has also been under repair since 2018.
The Russian Navy has suffered several unfortunate setbacks since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
In April 2022, Ukraine sank the flagship Black Sea Fleet «Moscow». Two months later, the Russian Navy relinquished control of Zmeiny Island in the Black Sea.
They have also been forced to withdraw their submarines from Sevastopol, their base on the Black Sea, due to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks. .
Admiral Kutezov, Aircraft Carrier Moskva, Slava Class Missile Cruiser
Analysts say Putin will take these failures of his fleet personally because of the emotional trauma he inflicted on them early in his presidency.
“This is the legacy of the Kursk,” Mr. Gorenburg said. “That was a worrying question for Putin.”
The nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000 when a torpedo exploded on board, killing most of its 118 crew and 23 sailors remained. stuck on the seabed.
The rescue work of Russia was unsuccessful. British and Norwegian divers later reached the submarine and found them dead.
The disaster, eight months after his presidency, was humiliating for Putin, who was accused of mismanaging the crisis.
It also spurred his ambition to modernize the Russian army, air force and navy to world-class units.
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