Russian navy covets Mediterranean Sea

The Washington Times

With Moscow's coffers replenished by the global oil boom, Adm. Vladimir Masorin, Russia's naval commander, has announced ambitious plans to expand the country's primary Black Sea base and establish a "permanent presence" in the eastern Mediterranean for the first time since the Cold War.

"The Mediterranean is very important strategically for the Black Sea Fleet," the admiral told reporters Friday on a visit to the Russian base at Sevastopol. "I propose that, with the involvement of the Northern and Baltic fleets, the Russian navy should restore its permanent presence there," the admiral said.

The rebuilding of the Russian navy and its bases on the Baltic and Black seas, devastated with the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been a pet project of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian naval officials plan a massive expansion of the Black Sea naval base at Novorossiysk to offset the expected loss of the Sevastopol base when a leasing deal with Ukraine expires in 2017. Russian engineers have been building new piers, barracks and port facilities at Novorossiysk.

The admiral's comments on the Mediterranean have added fuel to speculation that Russia also is considering the creation of a permanent, full-service naval base in the Syrian coastal town of Tartus, on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. The Kremlin has denied any plans for the Syrian site, a supply and maintenance base for the Soviet navy during the Cold War and still the site of the only Russian base outside the confines of the old Soviet Union.

But Russian engineers have been involved in dredging the waters around both Tartus and Latakia, a second Syrian coastal town. A detailed June 2 report in the Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing Russian Defense Ministry sources, said Tartus and Latakia were being considered as alternatives after the looming loss of Sevastopol.

A permanent Russian base in Syria would unnerve both the United States and Israel, and would be close to the strategic Turkish port of Ceyhan, the terminus of a major new oil pipeline linked to the Azerbaijani port city of Baku. Moscow has agreed to write off more than 70 percent of an $11 billion debt owed by Syria, leading to speculation that the concession was granted in return for expanded rights at Tartus and Latakia.