A day after the removal of the previous command of the Baltic Fleet from duties, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense decided on a new one. As Kommersant learned, I. O. commander of the fleet and O. Vice Admirals Alexander Nosatov and Igor Mukhametshin, who previously served in the Black Sea and Pacific Fleets, respectively, will be appointed Chief of Staff of the Fleet. Their main task will be to eliminate the deficiencies revealed during the last inspection and prepare the Baltic Fleet for a new inspection, which is scheduled for the end of the year.
A Kommersant source at the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces reported that the new command of the Baltic Fleet will be selected from among officers serving in other fleets immediately after the removal of Vice Admirals Viktor Kravchuk and Sergei Popov from their posts on June 29. The search for new candidates was short-lived: according to Kommersant's information, today Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will appoint and. O. Commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Alexander Nosatov and acting. O. Chief of the Fleet Staff, Vice Admiral Igor Mukhametshin: the first, before this appointment, headed the Naval Academy, and the second was the head of the submarine forces of the Pacific Fleet.
According to a Kommersant source in the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, the transfer of vice admirals to the Baltic Fleet was carried out on the recommendation of the main command of the Russian Navy. Alexander Nosatov has already served in this fleet: in 2009-2012 he was the commander of the Baltic Naval Base, after which he was promoted, becoming first the deputy commander of the Black Sea Fleet, and then the first deputy commander. Igor Mukhametshin, in turn, achieved success in his service in the Pacific Fleet (under his command, strategic missile submarines carried out almost all assigned tasks).
Let us recall that the reason for the dismissal of the previous command of the Baltic Fleet was the shortcomings revealed during the inspection carried out on behalf of the minister from May 11 to June 10 (see Kommersant of June 30). The reports say that the admirals deliberately distorted information about the real state of affairs in the fleet in reports sent to Moscow. According to Kommersant's information, the first complaints against Vice Admiral Kravchuk appeared a year ago, but the leadership of the Ministry of Defense decided to give him a chance to rectify the matter.
However, the fleet commander did not justify the trust: Kommersant's sources note that twice during control checks, Viktor Kravchuk unexpectedly fell ill, leaving deputies in his place. During the last inspection, inspectors found that the personnel of one of the units were sleeping on bare mattresses in the barracks.
A much more serious mistake was the attempt to hide from the authorities the consequences of the emergency on the diesel-electric submarine B-265 Krasnodar. The incident occurred on April 20 in the Baltic Sea: then some media reported that a Russian boat collided with the Polish submarine Orzel, but the Polish Ministry of Defense immediately denied this information to Kommersant. In fact, the Krasnodar received damage to its hull and some components (for example, a communication antenna) during an unsuccessful maneuver - apparently, the submarine collided with some object. However, in the reports of the command of the Baltic Fleet, the extent of damage to the Krasnodar was significantly underestimated. On May 4, the submarine, accompanied by naval tugs, arrived to carry out repair work at the Admiralty Shipyards (St. Petersburg). Things were no better with combat training: inspectors actually found forgeries in reports on the completion of mine defense tasks (indicators were artificially inflated). A Kommersant source in the department claims that Admiral Kravchuk was supposed to arrive at a meeting of the Ministry of Defense board on June 29 to give explanations, but on the eve of the event he told his colleagues that he had fallen ill again. After this, Sergei Shoigu decided to fire him not for health reasons (as planned), but with much stricter wording.
The priorities of Vice Admirals Nosatov and Mukhametshin will include eliminating deficiencies identified during the last inspection, as well as preparing the Baltic Fleet for the next inspection, which should take place before the end of the year.
KUBINKA /Moscow region/, June 29. /TASS/. The head of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, suspended the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Viktor Kravchuk, and the chief of staff of the fleet, Sergei Popov, from their duties for omissions in combat training, as well as distortion in reports of the real state of affairs. This was reported by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“The head of the military department and members of the board of the Ministry of Defense gave strict and principled assessments of the activities of officials who made serious lapses in their service. Based on the results of the inspection and discussion at the board, the commander of the Baltic Fleet, the chief of staff of the fleet and a number of other officials for serious lapses in combat training, as well as distortion in reports of the real state of affairs, they were removed from their duties by the Minister of Defense. They were presented for removal from positions and dismissal from military service,” the press service reported.
The military department clarified that the officials were punished “for serious omissions in the organization of combat training, the daily activities of troops (forces), failure to take all necessary measures to improve the conditions of accommodation of personnel, lack of care for subordinates, as well as distortions in reports of the real state of affairs.” .
Recheck
Sergei Shoigu also instructed to implement a plan to eliminate shortcomings identified in the Baltic Fleet as soon as possible, and to conduct a re-inspection at the end of the year.
“The Minister of Defense instructed to approve a plan for eliminating deficiencies as soon as possible, implement it and conduct a re-inspection of the Baltic Fleet at the end of this year,” the statement said.
Victor Kravchuk. Biography
Born on January 18, 1961 in the village. Palasher of Usolsky district, Perm region. (now Perm region). In 1978 he entered the Pacific Higher Naval School named after. S.O. Makarova (Vladivostok), graduated in 1983. In 1987-1988. completed training at the Higher Special Officer Classes of the Navy in Leningrad (now the Military Institute of Additional Professional Education, a branch of the VUNTS Navy "Naval Academy named after Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union N.G. Kuznetsov, St. Petersburg). In 1997, he graduated in absentia Naval Academy named after N.G. Kuznetsov. In 2000-2002, he completed his military service in the Pacific Fleet of the USSR Navy. commander of the navigator combat unit (BC-1) of the patrol ship. In 1983-1987 - commander of the missile boat. In the period from 1988 to 1999, he continued to serve in the Pacific Fleet, commander of the missile boat division. 1st brigade of missile boats (now the 165th Red Banner Sakhalin Brigade of surface ships). - Deputy Commander of the Caspian Flotilla, Vice Admiral Yuri Startsev. In 2003-2005 served as chief of staff - first deputy commander of the Caspian flotilla Startsev. From 2005 to 2009 - Commander of the Caspian Flotilla. From December 2009 to May 2012 - Deputy Commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov. After the latter’s appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, in May - September 2012, Kravchuk served as acting commander of the Baltic Fleet. On September 14, 2012, he was appointed commander of the Baltic Fleet. Vice Admiral (2007). Recipient of the Order of Military Merit, awarded medals from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Vladimir Filippovich Tributs was born on July 15, 1900 in St. Petersburg. Tributs' ancestors were serfs of the Minsk province. Vladimir received his primary education in a three-year school. Then he studies at the Petrovsky four-year school and at the military paramedic school. After the October Revolution of 1917, Vladimir Tributs worked in a hospital in Petrograd as a junior medical assistant. At the beginning of 1918, he voluntarily joined the Red Guard, fought near Narva, then served in the united naval detachment of Pavel Dybenko.
DURING THE CIVIL WAR
During the Civil War, Tributs fought as part of the First Northern Flying Detachment of Baltic sailors, participated in the battles near Astrakhan as part of the Astrakhan Flotilla, and in 1919, on the Caspian Sea, Tributs joined the crew of the destroyer “Active”. Then he served on the gunboat Lenin. He participated in the liberation of Baku and Makhachkala, the capture of the Persian port of Anzali (1920), as a result of which the Reds received 29 White Guard ships, 50 artillery pieces, 120,000 artillery shells, etc. as trophies.
FROM COMMITTEE TO VICE ADMIRAL
In 1926, Vladimir Filippovich graduated from the Naval School named after. M.V., Frunze and as a platoon commander of a naval crew was sent to the Naval Forces in the Baltic Sea. He became the commander of the main caliber turret of the battleship Paris Commune, and in 1929 - the second assistant commander of the ship. Soon he went to serve on the battleship Marat, and then was appointed commander of the destroyer Yakov Sverdlov. In 1932 he graduated from the Naval Academy. K. E. Voroshilova.
In 1936, the commander of the destroyer Vladimir Tributs moved to the position of head of the Baltic Fleet headquarters department and made a dizzying career: in February 1938 he became the chief of staff of the fleet, and in April 1939 he was appointed commander of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. On January 28, 1940, Tributs was awarded the military rank of flagship of the 1st rank, and on June 4, 1940, he was recertified to vice admiral.
THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR
In the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, Tributs led the actions of the naval forces, which provided assistance to the ground forces of the Red Army in the defense of Tallinn, the islands of the Moonsund archipelago, the Hanko Peninsula... In August 1941, he led the tragic transition of the naval forces from the base in Tallinn to Kronstadt and Leningrad. In Leningrad, Tributs took part in the organization and implementation of the defense of the city (1941-1943), and actively interacted with ground forces in operations carried out by the Red Army. On his initiative, naval artillery groups were created, which, together with the artillery of the Leningrad Front, delivered powerful blows to the enemy.
The Baltic Fleet and its commander were entrusted with the task of organizing the supply of Leningrad along Lake Ladoga. By order of Tributs, new berths and piers were built... During this operation, low-speed armed tugs proved themselves brilliantly. They transported troops, delivered food, ammunition and equipment, evacuated the population of besieged Leningrad, and hundreds of times entered into duels with enemy batteries and enemy boats and ships that tried to interrupt transportation. But our submarine fleet in the Baltic was destined for a tragic fate during the Great Patriotic War.
Soviet intelligence received comprehensive information about Sweden's violation of its neutrality. The military industry of Nazi Germany was completely dependent on supplies of strategic materials from Sweden. For example, in 1939 alone, Germany received more than 10.6 million tons of high-quality Swedish iron ore (in which iron accounted for 60%). In addition, the Swedes supplied the Nazis with their Bofors rapid-fire guns, ammunition, equipment, ships, bearings, etc.
And all this was transported across the Baltic. These transportations had to be interrupted, and only submarines could do this. And Soviet submarines went on combat missions along transport routes from Sweden and Norway. A number of ore carriers were sunk by them... But the Germans took the threat to their economy so seriously that in the summer of 1943 they tightly blocked the throat of the Gulf of Finland with a network of powerful steel cable (from coast to coast) and dense mine laying. In addition, they covered the minefields with heavy coastal artillery, aircraft and anti-submarine ships. These barriers became an almost insurmountable obstacle for Soviet submarines.
Despite the available objective data, the commander of the Baltic Fleet still gave the order to break through the barriers. Soviet boats began to leave for missions one after another, one after another - they left and did not return... And only the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Stalin, was able to interrupt this terrible process. Submarine warfare in the Baltic languished until October 1944, when Finland finally withdrew from the war and made its ports available to the Soviet Baltic Fleet. At the end of 1944, Russian submarines moved to Finnish bases and nevertheless stopped the transportation of strategic raw materials from Sweden to the Baltic.
In 1943-1944, Admiral Tributs took part in the development and conduct of operations to break the blockade and defeat the enemy in the Leningrad area, as well as in the Vyborg and Svir-Petrozavodsk offensive operations. Subsequently, he led the naval forces during the landing operation to capture the islands of the Moonsund archipelago.
AFTER THE WAR
Admiral (1943) Vladimir Filippovich Tributs commanded the Red Banner Baltic Fleet until May 1947. Then he served as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Navy in the Far East, and from 1949 - Head of the IMF Hydrographic Directorate. He retired in 1961 and wrote four books, including two on the war in the Baltic: “The Baltics Enter the Battle” and “The Baltics Advance.” In 1972, Vladimir Filippovich became a Doctor of Historical Sciences.
4346
Russian scientists planning to learn teleportation in 2035 were ahead of military sailors who learned to “distort reality.” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu did not appreciate the “achievements” of his subordinates. This conclusion can be drawn from the official message of the press service of the Ministry of Defense, distributed following the results of the department’s visiting board, held in the Patriot Park near Moscow. The commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk, and the chief of staff of the fleet, Vice Admiral Sergei Popov, were removed from their positions with the wording “for serious omissions in the organization of combat training, the daily activities of troops (forces), failure to take measures to improve the conditions of accommodation of personnel, lack of care about subordinates, as well as distortions in reports of the real state of affairs.”
Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk.
“A number of other fleet officials have been nominated for dismissal.” As Fontanka learned, these are more than 50 high-ranking officers of the fleet headquarters, commanders of squadrons, brigades and military units in admiral and Caperang uniforms.
Translating from the military bureaucracy into a generally understandable one, the Baltic Fleet command was accused of inability to repel an attack by a potential enemy, to organize the life of subordinate troops and ships in peacetime, as well as of lying to the higher command. Under Peter I and Comrade Stalin, such accusations resulted in capital punishment; in the humane 21st century, the Ministry of Defense reports “removal from military posts and dismissal from military service.”
Military experts interviewed by Fontanka are surprised by the minister’s “blowing out dirty linen in public.” According to them, the command of large military formations had been “cleansed” before, but this had never been publicly reported. As a rule, military leaders of this rank are officially dismissed either “for health reasons” or “due to retirement.”
“Nobody knows what exactly happened. They carried out an inspection there for a month, but it is absolutely not in the style of either Putin or Shoigu to openly talk about why people are being fired, even in such formulations. This is something new. One can only guess what they did,” military observer Alexander Golts told Fontanka.
Kaliningrad political scientist Vladimir Abramov agrees with him: “In all the post-Soviet times, by God, I don’t remember anything like this. Usually they tried to fire quietly. On the one hand, it is quite possible that this is such a demonstrative action.”
In July 2015, Vladimir Putin, during a visit to the Kaliningrad region, highly assessed the state of affairs in the Baltic Fleet.
“The Navy successfully ensures the country’s defense capability, protects its national interests, including in the Baltic Fleet, which successfully carries out tasks not only in its native Baltic Sea, but also in other areas of the World Ocean, and displays our flag with honor,” said then President of Russia.
As it turned out today, the reports to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, to put it mildly, “distorted the real state of affairs.”
A high-ranking source in the Ministry of Defense told Fontanka that the purge of ranks was preceded by an unscheduled inspection of the state of affairs in the fleet, carried out by officers of the General Staff. The reason for it was the accident of a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea in April 2016. Then, according to Polish media reports (later officially denied by the Russian Ministry of Defense), the Baltic Fleet submarine collided with a Polish military vessel, most likely a reconnaissance ship, and received serious damage, which could lead to a repeat of the tragic history of the Kursk. The command then tried to hide the incident from higher management, which was the reason for a tough and large-scale inspection.
The audit revealed not only facts of lies by the naval leadership in a particular case, but also a failed situation in the construction and reconstruction of naval bases and military camps, and ineffective use of allocated funds. The inspectors also learned about the disruption of the state program for recruiting contract service.
“By analogy with football, the cumulative system of “yellow cards” had its effect. Mr. Kravchuk has been looking for this for a long time. The condition of the fleet under Kravchuk, as his subordinates say, has worsened even compared to his predecessors, who experienced times of much worse funding,” Kaliningrad journalist Ilya Stulov told Fontanka.
One example, as the journalist says, of “fraud” is in his investigation into the state of the military dormitory, nicknamed the “Pentagon” in Baltiysk.
It turned out that 73 officer families lived in a building that since 2011 has been recognized as dangerous for living in: the windows are broken, the rooms are ventilated, there is no hot water, the walls are moldy, the ceilings collapse from time to time, threatening to bury people under the rubble - as happened in Omsk . One day, a disaster almost happened: the fourth floor of the building collapsed onto the third. Fortunately, no one died. Two children managed to run out of the room. But it flattened the plumbing in the toilet on the floor. The military did not do any repairs then; they were forbidden to complain under threat of dismissal; dry toilets were installed on the street. OJSC "Slavyanka", which maintains the building, as stated in the article, regularly received money, but of the work carried out, the residents of the hostel only remembered replacing light bulbs and replacing the pipe under the washbasin. At the Slavyanka office, the journalist was told that the commander in chief was aware of the situation:
– After the tragedy in Omsk, all military dormitories and barracks in the country were subject to inspections to determine if they were dangerous for living. No such objects were identified in the Baltic Fleet. The military was forbidden to even utter a word about the fact that rotten beams could fall on them at any moment or that their children could be killed by wartime wiring.
After Ilya Stulov’s article, the Pentagon was closed, but Viktor Kravchuk kept accumulating “yellow cards,” as he puts it.
– It turned out, for example, that Kravchuk was friends with the “amber baron” Viktor Bogdan, known under the nickname Ballet and now on the international wanted list. The Ballet group not only took over the amber trade, it was also involved in other things - directly related to the Baltic Fleet. For example, several years ago, special officers detained a fuel truck, in the cabin of which there were a certain Alexander Fomin, an active member of Bogdan’s group, and Igor Bogdan, his nephew. The fuel tanker contained 22 tons of diesel fuel stolen from ships of the Baltic Fleet.
“The fact is that there (in the Baltic Fleet - editor's note) the 11th Army Corps was created and barracks, housing for the people who arrive there, and lots of equipment were to be built for it. But apparently, the money that was allocated for this was spent on other tasks and the commander, chief of staff, and other officials did not follow the instructions that the Minister of Defense gave them, were not ready to accept additional military equipment, and strengthen the brigade that is located there,” says military expert, retired colonel Viktor Litovkin.
According to a Fontanka source, the last straw really was that the General Staff found out the inability of the naval leadership to organize interaction between the interspecific group of troops transferred to the subordination of the Baltic Fleet.
In 2012, the fleet commander Viktor Kravchuk was tasked with creating the KOR - Kaliningrad Defensive Region, a large grouping of fleet, aviation and infantry, under a single command. During this time, attack and fighter aircraft, air defense systems, Iskander missile systems, and the 11th Army Corps, which includes more than 4 infantry divisions, were transferred to the fleet.
According to the General Staff, the KOR should become the main deterrent force of the Russian army in the western strategic direction. The Baltic Fleet learned to operate together with aviation and infantry at the strategic exercises “Zapad-2013” and “Union Shield - 2015”, together with the troops of the western military district and the allied army of Belarus.
An audit of the General Staff showed that all the achievements of the fleet in strengthening combat readiness turned out to be “fake”, and the president was “showing off dust in the eyes” during the exercises.
“According to my sources, from May 11 to June 10, the fleet was inspected by the Ministry of Defense. During this time, the number of technical failures when performing tasks exceeded all acceptable standards. The whole of Baltiysk saw how a submarine was taken out of the pier on tugboats. After that, instead of going under water, she began to smoke. The tugs quickly took the boat back. But a joke went around Baltiysk: Kravchuk put the wrong boat out to sea, it was necessary to show the command an exhibit from the Museum of the World Ocean, this war-time boat is in better technical condition than modern ones,” says Ilya Stulov.
Today, the Baltic Fleet is structurally subordinate to the Western Military District and the Main Command of the Navy, whose headquarters are located close to each other in St. Petersburg. Fontanka tried to find out how long the Baltic Fleet was “distorting the real state of affairs” and whether Russia’s western borders are strong today, but official representatives of the headquarters of the Western Military District and the High Command of the Navy were unavailable for comment on this day.
At the time of writing this material, there was no information about who Sergei Shoigu would entrust command of the Baltic Fleet to. It is also not known whether the minister will take disciplinary measures against Viktor Kravchuk’s immediate commanders - Western Military District Commander Andrei Kartapolov and Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Korolev. True, Fontanka’s sources remind us that both Kartapolov and Korolev are relatively new to their positions, and it is possible that close attention to the Baltic Fleet is their doing.
For now, all that is known for certain is that the Minister of Defense “instructed that a plan for eliminating deficiencies be approved as soon as possible and that it be implemented.” The fleet is expected to be re-inspected at the end of the year. “Let’s hope that during this time the Kaliningrad region will not be taken away from us,” say the military.
In addition to Fleet Commander Kravchuk and Chief of Staff Popov, the Minister of Defense fired another 50 admirals and captains of the first rank of the Baltic Fleet. There has never been such a total purge in the history of the Russian fleet.
Russian scientists planning to learn teleportation in 2035 were ahead of military sailors who learned to “distort reality.” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu did not appreciate the “achievements” of his subordinates. This conclusion can be drawn from the official message of the press service of the Ministry of Defense, distributed following the results of the department’s visiting board, held in the Patriot Park near Moscow. The commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk, and the chief of staff of the fleet, Vice Admiral Sergei Popov, were removed from their positions with the wording “for serious omissions in the organization of combat training, the daily activities of troops (forces), failure to take measures to improve the conditions of accommodation of personnel, lack of care about subordinates, as well as distortions in reports of the real state of affairs.”
“A number of other fleet officials have been nominated for dismissal.” As Fontanka learned, these are more than 50 high-ranking officers of the fleet headquarters, commanders of squadrons, brigades and military units in admiral and Caperang uniforms.
Translating from the military bureaucracy into a generally understandable one, the Baltic Fleet command was accused of inability to repel an attack by a potential enemy, to organize the life of subordinate troops and ships in peacetime, as well as of lying to the higher command. Under Peter I and Comrade Stalin, such accusations resulted in capital punishment; in the humane 21st century, the Ministry of Defense reports “removal from military posts and dismissal from military service.”
Military experts interviewed by Fontanka are surprised by the minister’s “washing of dirty linen in public.” According to them, the command of large military formations had been “cleansed” before, but this had never been publicly reported. As a rule, military leaders of this rank are officially dismissed either “for health reasons” or “due to retirement.”
“Nobody knows what exactly happened. They carried out an inspection there for a month, but it is absolutely not in the style of either Putin or Shoigu to openly talk about why people are being fired, even in such formulations. This is something new. One can only guess what they did,” military observer Alexander Golts told Fontanka.
Kaliningrad political scientist Vladimir Abramov agrees with him: “In all the post-Soviet times, by God, I don’t remember anything like this. Usually they tried to fire quietly. On the one hand, it is quite possible that this is such a demonstrative action.”
In July 2015, Vladimir Putin, during a visit to the Kaliningrad region, highly assessed the state of affairs in the Baltic Fleet.
“The Navy successfully ensures the country’s defense capability, protects its national interests, including in the Baltic Fleet, which successfully carries out tasks not only in its native Baltic Sea, but also in other areas of the World Ocean, and displays our flag with honor,” said then President of Russia.
As it turned out today, the reports to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, to put it mildly, “distorted the real state of affairs.”
A high-ranking source in the Ministry of Defense told Fontanka that the purge of the ranks was preceded by an unscheduled inspection of the state of affairs in the fleet, carried out by officers of the General Staff. The reason for it was the accident of a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea in April 2016. Then, according to Polish media reports (later officially denied by the Russian Ministry of Defense), the Baltic Fleet submarine collided with a Polish military vessel, most likely a reconnaissance ship, and received serious damage, which could lead to a repeat of the tragic history of the Kursk. The command then tried to hide the incident from higher management, which was the reason for a tough and large-scale inspection.
The audit revealed not only facts of lies by the naval leadership in a particular case, but also a failed situation in the construction and reconstruction of naval bases and military camps, and ineffective use of allocated funds. The inspectors also learned about the disruption of the state program for recruiting contract service.
“By analogy with football, the cumulative system of “yellow cards” had its effect. Mr. Kravchuk has been looking for this for a long time. The condition of the fleet under Kravchuk, as his subordinates say, has worsened even compared to his predecessors, who experienced times of much worse funding,” Kaliningrad journalist Ilya Stulov told Fontanka.
One example, as the journalist says, of “fraud” is in his investigation into the state of the military dormitory, nicknamed the “Pentagon” in Baltiysk.
It turned out that 73 officer families lived in a building that since 2011 has been recognized as dangerous for living in: the windows are broken, the rooms are ventilated, there is no hot water, the walls are moldy, the ceilings collapse from time to time, threatening to bury people under the rubble - as happened in Omsk . One day, a disaster almost happened: the fourth floor of the building collapsed onto the third. Fortunately, no one died. Two children managed to run out of the room. But it flattened the plumbing in the toilet on the floor. The military did not do any repairs then; they were forbidden to complain under threat of dismissal; dry toilets were installed on the street. OJSC "Slavyanka", which maintains the building, as stated in the article, regularly received money, but of the work carried out, the residents of the hostel only remembered replacing light bulbs and replacing the pipe under the washbasin. At the Slavyanka office, the journalist was told that the commander in chief was aware of the situation:
– After the tragedy in Omsk, all military dormitories and barracks in the country were subject to inspections to determine if they were dangerous for living. No such objects were identified in the Baltic Fleet. The military was forbidden to even utter a word about the fact that rotten beams could fall on them at any moment or that their children could be killed by wartime wiring.
After Ilya Stulov’s article, the Pentagon was closed, but Viktor Kravchuk kept accumulating “yellow cards,” as he puts it.
– It turned out, for example, that Kravchuk was friends with the “amber baron” Viktor Bogdan, known under the nickname Ballet and now on the international wanted list. The Ballet group not only took over the amber trade, it was also involved in other things - directly related to the Baltic Fleet. For example, several years ago, special officers detained a fuel truck, in the cabin of which there were a certain Alexander Fomin, an active member of Bogdan’s group, and Igor Bogdan, his nephew. The fuel tanker contained 22 tons of diesel fuel stolen from ships of the Baltic Fleet.
“The fact is that there (in the Baltic Fleet - editor's note) the 11th Army Corps was created and barracks, housing for the people who arrive there, and lots of equipment were to be built for it. But, apparently, the money that was allocated for this was spent on other tasks, and the commander, chief of staff and other officials did not follow the instructions that the Minister of Defense gave them, were not ready to accept additional military equipment and strengthen the brigade that is located there,” says military expert, retired colonel Viktor Litovkin.
According to a Fontanka source, the last straw really was that the General Staff found out the inability of the naval leadership to organize interaction between the interspecific group of troops transferred to the subordination of the Baltic Fleet.
In 2012, the fleet commander Viktor Kravchuk was tasked with creating the KOR - Kaliningrad Defensive Region, a large grouping of fleet, aviation and infantry under a single command. During this time, attack and fighter aircraft, air defense systems, Iskander missile systems, and the 11th Army Corps, which includes more than 4 infantry divisions, were transferred to the fleet.
According to the General Staff, the KOR was to become the main deterrent force of the Russian army in the western strategic direction. The Baltic Fleet learned to operate together with aviation and infantry at the strategic exercises “Zapad-2013” and “Union Shield - 2015” together with the troops of the Western Military District and the allied army of Belarus.
An audit of the General Staff showed that all the achievements of the fleet in strengthening combat readiness turned out to be “fake”, and the president was “showing off dust in the eyes” during the exercises.
“According to my sources, from May 11 to June 10, the fleet was inspected by the Ministry of Defense. During this time, the number of technical failures when performing tasks exceeded all acceptable standards. The whole of Baltiysk saw how a submarine was taken out of the pier on tugboats. After that, instead of going under water, she began to smoke. The tugs quickly took the boat back. But a joke went around Baltiysk: Kravchuk put the wrong boat out to sea, it was necessary to show the command an exhibit from the Museum of the World Ocean, this wartime boat is in better technical condition than modern ones,” says Ilya Stulov.
Today, the Baltic Fleet is structurally subordinate to the Western Military District and the Main Command of the Navy, whose headquarters are located close to each other in St. Petersburg. Fontanka tried to find out how long the Baltic Fleet was “distorting the real state of affairs” and whether Russia’s western borders are strong today, but official representatives of the headquarters of the Western Military District and the High Command of the Navy were unavailable for comment on this day.
At the time of writing this material, there was no information about who Sergei Shoigu would entrust command of the Baltic Fleet to. It is also unknown whether the minister will take disciplinary measures against Viktor Kravchuk’s immediate commanders - Western Military District Commander Andrei Kartapolov and Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Korolev. True, Fontanka’s sources remind us that both Kartapolov and Korolev are relatively new to their positions, and it is possible that the close attention to the Baltic Fleet is their doing.
For now, all that is known for certain is that the Minister of Defense “instructed that a plan for eliminating deficiencies be approved as soon as possible and that it be implemented.” The fleet is expected to be re-inspected at the end of the year. “Let’s hope that during this time the Kaliningrad region will not be taken away from us,” say the military.
Yulia Nikitina, Irina Tumakova, Fontanka.ru
