On Monday, April 2, it became known that the Caspian flotilla will be completely transferred from Astrakhan, where it is currently based, to Dagestan, to the city of Kaspiysk. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke about this during the meeting. Experts note that this decision is directly related to the desire to increase the mobility of the main forces of the flotilla. The military considered that the ships of the association currently have too long access to the Caspian Sea from Astrakhan.
As noted by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, work is being actively carried out in Dagestan aimed at creating a housing and barracks fund, a military hospital and other infrastructure facilities necessary to accommodate the crews of the ships of the Caspian Flotilla. Also, work began on the construction of hydraulic structures and berths. The new base of the flotilla will be located in the satellite city of the Dagestan capital - Kaspiysk. All work on the redeployment of the forces of the Caspian Flotilla to the new base will proceed simultaneously. In addition, the association will continue to receive new types of weapons and military equipment.
According to Shoigu, a very large construction project is underway in Kaspiysk: berths, piers, service points, housing. At the same time, he noted that the number of servicemen and officers of the Caspian Flotilla will increase manifold. Sergei Shoigu did not say anything about the reasons for the decision and the timing of the move. At the same time, the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also refrained from commenting on this.
Local authorities are happy with this decision of the Russian Defense Ministry. Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Dagestan Ramazan Jafarov noted that the relocation of the flotilla to Kaspiysk will be of strategic importance for the socio-economic development of the republic: the emergence of a new infrastructure, a solution to the issue of employment. In addition to the construction of military facilities, issues on the development of the social sphere will also be resolved: the construction of schools and kindergartens, the construction of housing - all this is planned to be included in the comprehensive program for the development of Dagestan and the program for the comprehensive development of Russian monocities.
The Caspian Flotilla is the oldest operational formation of the Russian Navy. It was created back in 1722 by Emperor Peter I. Today, the flotilla includes various surface ships, search and rescue ships, coastal troops, aviation, as well as parts of special, logistic and technical support. The main tasks of the flotilla are: ensuring the state and national interests of Russia in the Caspian region and countering terrorism. The flotilla includes more than 70 warships and auxiliary vessels for various purposes, including two patrol (missile) ships of project 11661K "Gepard" ("Tatarstan" and "Dagestan"), three small missile ships of project 21631 "Buyan-M" ("Grad Sviyazhsk", "Veliky Ustyug" and "Uglich"), as well as three small artillery ships of project 21630 "Buyan" ("Astrakhan", "Volgodonsk", "Makhachkala") and other ships (including artillery, rocket, map boats, landing ships, tugs). According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the share of new ships and boats in the Caspian flotilla has been brought to 85 percent, he spoke about this at the end of 2015.
Reasons for moving
Representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the start of construction of a military port in Kaspiysk back in the fall of 2017. It is planned that the first stage of construction of bases for ships of the Caspian Flotilla will be completed in 2019. Ruslan Tsalikov, First Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, announced this in September last year. Admiral Igor Kasatonov, adviser to the chief of the General Staff, who headed the Black Sea Fleet in 1991-1992, noted in an interview with RBC journalists that the transfer of the flotilla would not be a quick process. According to him, the decision to move from Astrakhan to Kaspiysk was dictated by the problem of the location of the current base of the flotilla. “Astrakhan is located 100 kilometers from the Caspian Sea, what kind of naval base is that if you have to walk along the river for another 6 hours. In addition, in winter the river simply freezes, and in the summer months it grows shallow - you may not go out at all, - Igor Kasatonov explained the decision to relocate the base.
Among the probable reasons for the move, there was also a drop in the level of the Caspian Sea in its northern part predicted by some experts. This would complicate the operation here of the relatively large missile ships of the Caspian Flotilla - projects 11661 and 21631. If we do not take into account the failed transfer of the main forces of the Russian Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, then since the 1990s this is the first case of a change in the main base of the flotilla … At the same time, the need to relocate the Black Sea Fleet disappeared by itself after the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula to Russia in 2014.
Astrakhan became the main base of the Caspian flotilla relatively recently and was forced only after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the flotilla was divided between the Caspian countries of the CIS (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), then the Russian part had to be relocated from Baku to Dagestan and Astrakhan. According to Sergei Shoigu, the transfer of the flotilla to the Dagestan Kaspiysk "is a serious component of security in the region." Retired admiral and former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Viktor Kravchenko, noted that the transfer of the flotilla would make it possible to form a "powerful fist" in the Caspian Sea. “All the forces of the flotilla will be concentrated in one place, and it will no longer depend on weather conditions,” said Kravchenko.
Military expert Colonel Mikhail Khodarenok agrees with the fact that the relocation of the flotilla base is associated with taking into account climatic considerations. According to him, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Caspian Flotilla was relocated to a completely unprepared place for this. At the same time, the fact that the Volga delta, as well as the northern part of the Caspian, freeze over was not taken into account. At the same time, the ships and vessels of the Caspian Flotilla are small and not reinforced. In principle, in severe frosts, they simply risk not leaving their base, Mikhail Khodarenok noted in an interview with RBC. According to the military expert, some base station in Astrakhan will still be preserved.
Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of the magazine Arsenal of the Fatherland, agrees that Astrakhan is inconvenient for basing a fleet. According to him, the Volga delta not only freezes in the winter months, it also has to maintain fairways, since the depths in this place are shallow, as well as a very difficult hydrological situation. In addition, Astrakhan is going to develop a commercial port of the Caspian region, and this, in theory, could affect the operational readiness of the military, said Viktor Murakhovsky.
According to the military expert, there was already a base for the flotilla in Dagestan. And in terms of its location, this republic is better. In Kaspiysk, the conditions for the operational use of the fleet are significantly improved. In particular, the departure of ships to patrol the territorial waters is becoming easier, Murakhovsky said. According to the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland", the funds for the construction of new facilities and infrastructure are included in the state armaments program.
The Caspian Flotilla is very important for the Russian Federation both from a military-strategic and geopolitical point of view, Admiral Igor Kasatonov said in an interview with RBC. “There is no doubt about that. Despite the fact that the Caspian Sea is closed, it allows solving, among other things, strategic tasks in such conflicts as, for example, in Syria,”the admiral said. During the Syrian campaign, Russian sailors several times fired Kalibr cruise missiles at targets of the Islamic State group banned in Russia from the Caspian Sea. A number of experts even believe that today the Caspian Flotilla is one of the most operational formations of the fleet.
Independent military expert, reserve colonel Andrei Pajusov, believes that the redeployment of the flotilla has nothing to do with internal political events, for example, the recent change in the leadership of Dagestan. According to Pajusov, the redeployment of the Caspian Flotilla was discussed even under the former Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and is in line with the adopted plans for the construction of the Navy until 2020. “Climate, shipping, logistics and economics play a key role in the relocation of the main base of the flotilla. In addition, territorially, the ships will now be located closer to the operational deployment areas,”the military expert noted. Andrey Pajusov recalled that among the main tasks of the Caspian Flotilla is to ensure the safety of navigation, fishing, and oil production.
It is assumed that there will be no sharp reaction on the part of the heads of the Caspian countries in connection with the transfer of the base of the Caspian flotilla from Astrakhan to Kaspiysk, since the relocation of the main base of the association does not violate the agreements existing at the moment. At the same time, in the fall of 2018, at the summit of the heads of the Caspian states, which will be held in Astana, it is planned to sign the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea (this document has been prepared for about 20 years). At the end of 2017, Grigory Krasnov, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia in an interview with Kommersant, said that the principle of dividing the Caspian Sea had already been agreed, refusing to go into the details of the agreement.
