Russian War Ships Pass Straits Of Gibraltar Heading In Full Force Towards East Med.

Russian War Ships Pass Straits Of Gibraltar Heading In Full Force Towards East Med.

CLICK ON BOLD LINKS TO CROSS-REFERENCE ARTICLE

An unprecedented armada or Russian warships, consisting of the Northern and Baltic Sea Fleets just passed through the Straits of Gibraltar and is heading in full force towards the Eastern Mediterranean. All these ships are capable of amphibious operations and can certainly carry thousands of marines and scores of tanks and armoured personnel carriers. They are accompanied by guided missile destroyers and at least one cruiser.

A report on defencenet that was published late on Monday night said that the armada consists of a Yaroslavl mudra frigate, and the Kaliningrad, Alexander Sampalin and other LANDING ships. Accompanying them is a missile destroyer, a salvage tug boat SB-921, and the tanker Lena, etc.

Meanwhile, another series of boats requested permission to pass through the Black Sea.

Meanwhile at the other end of the Mediterranean, the electronic warfare ship Azov, which was already stationed here left the area and is already sailing into the Aegean. Accompanying this ship is the N. FILCHENKOV, (No. 152) Class Alligator. The latter ship was part of the first group that was going to get the cruiser Moskva, last November, but for unknown reasons this did not happen. Parallel to this, the PYTILIVIY (No. 808) Class KRIVAK frigate has also entered the Aegean. It too is being accompanied by another ship with dates of entry January 9 and January 13, respectively. Strangely the NOVOCHERKASS ship, is also on its way back to the Black Sea (January 12-13), but the Smetliviy destroyer ship (which is in the Aegean), will remain.

When all this re-shuffling of ships is complete the MOskva battle team will consist of 2 destroyers and 2 frigates. The report on defencenet noted that Russia is strengthening its battle units and thus gathering a large number of LANDING ships in the areas instead. Let us not forget that several units from the Pacific Fleet, including several battle ships are also expected to join the battle team very soon.

It is the largest Russian force in the area in well over four decades and quite a powerful armada. One really has to wonder what will follow in Syria. It is obvious that the a full-scale war against the government of Assad is being staged.

On January 6, Press TV headlined “Russian warships gathering off Syria waters to deter West: Report.” The Sunday Times was cited. It said Russia sent sent several landing ships. On board are military vehicles, hundreds of marines, and combat vessels.

“Russia should be prepared for any developments as it believes the situation in Syria might reach its peak before Easter,” it said.

A separate article from Stephen Lendman at sjlendman.blogspot.com quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying that Russia intends to deter “the West from deploying ground forces.” Moscow says its ships are to “improve the management, maintenance, and testing of the interaction of naval forces.”

On January 2, Iran’s Fars News Agency (FNA) headlined “Foreign Military Intervention in Syria: Red Line for Russia.” Mehdi Sanayee is a senior Iranian legislator a National Security and Foreign Policy Commission member and a Russian expert. Apparently he told the FNA that causing developments through military intervention and remaining empty-handed in the developments in Syria are Moscow’s red lines.

On the stop making sense news site we also read that deploying Russian forces represents a “new step” in the Syrian conflict. “Russia tries to prove on the international scene that it is committed to its strategy, which is opposition to and confrontation against foreign military intervention and unilateral moves in Syria to show that it has not surrendered on them,” he said. He referred to Vladimir Putin’s earlier comments. They suggested Moscow’s new position. It remains to be seen what follows.

As well as protecting Russia's interests in Syria, the presence of Russian marines was intended to discourage western countries from putting special forces on the ground in the uprising against Syrian President B.Assad. Officially the Russian navy said the ships were preparing for an exercise to improve the management, maintenance and testing of the interaction of naval forces, but from what it looks like Russia is preparing itself for any developments, as it believes the situation in Syria might reach its peak before Easter.

http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2013/01/russian-war-ships-pass-straits-of.html