Russia: Need for Black Sea Fleet analysed, main combatant specifications listed.

Text of report by the website of pro-government Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda on 23 April

[Article by Aleksey Ovchinnikov and comment by Komsomolskaya Pravda military analyst Viktor Baranets under rubric "Politics": "Why Does Russia Need Sevastopol? What Our Black Sea Fleet and Naval Base in Crimea Now Represent"]

Presidents Dmitriy Medvedev and Viktor Yanukovych signed agreements in Kharkiv on 21 April extending the lease of the base in the city of Russian sailors for another 25 years up to 2042. In exchange Moscow is giving Ukraine discounts on natural gas, thanks to which our neighbours will save up to 1 billion dollars a quarter. But as RF Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared, the money in this case is not the important thing, inasmuch as "for Russia, Crimea is an exceptional case; that is how it shaped up historically."

So just what does the Black Sea Fleet represent, how many ships does it have, what are they capable of, and strictly speaking, why do we have to keep our naval striking force in Crimea?

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