... potential return of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in the peninsula, both supplement the already ongoing modernization of the Black Sea Fleet started in late 2000s. These capacities should provide the “Southern strategic bastion” with the ability ... ... Pontic region, while supporting the renewal of the Kremlin’s influence in the Mediterranean and in the Middle East.
The Ukrainian crisis has cast the Black Sea region at the heart of Russia-West relations, and has furthermore confirmed that the Pontic ...
... Severodvinsk and employed nearly 24 000 people[8]. The ports Russia kept after 1991 in the Sea of Azov and in the Black Sea were largely second and third importance ports with limited infrastructures and poor production capacities. Consequently, since 1991, Black Sea Fleet vessels’ maintenance has been performed by Baltic shipyards (either in Kaliningrad or in Saint Petersburg), and by Bulgarian shipyard (Varna), and, occasionally, by the Ship Repair Plant n° 13 in Sevastopol. This precarious maritime ...
Part Two:
What are the consequences for the buildup of the Black Sea Fleet?
Having examined the plans for the economic development of Crimea and the construction of infrastructures in the peninsula in our previous paper, we now raise issues related to the impact of Russia’s seizure of Crimea for the modernization ...
