Putin Orders Black Sea Warship Exercises

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Russia's Black Sea fleet to begin large-scale, unscheduled naval exercises involving dozens of ships and thousands of troops.

The order was reportedly presented to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in a sealed envelope at 4am Moscow time as Mr Putin flew back from an international summit in South Africa.

President Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the exercises would involve 36 warships and up to 7,000 troops, as well as an unspecified number of aircraft.

He said that the exercises were designed to test the battle-readiness of Black Sea units.

Mr Peskov told Russian news agencies: "These are large-scale unannounced test exercises. The main goal is to check the readiness and cohesion of the various units."

He declined to say how long the exercises would last.

Russia's military muscle-flexing is unlikely to go down well with its post-Soviet neighbours Ukraine and Georgia.

The Black Sea fleet was instrumental in Russia's five-day war with the latter in 2008, and disputes over the fleet's base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol have strained relations between Moscow and Kiev.

But Mr Peskov said Russia was under no obligation to provide advance warning of military exercises as long as fewer than 7,000 personnel were involved.

Mr Putin at the BRICS summit with Brazil, India, China and South Africa

Russian military expert Alexander Golts, a contributor to the Moscow Times, told Sky News: "Several weeks ago military training similar to this was carried out in Ural mountains by order of the minister of defence.

"It happened in a similar way, unexpectedly for troops, without warnings. This is the right way to carry out exercises because only when it's unexpected it gives the government the right idea about the level of battle readiness of their troops.

"The situation is a bit different though with the Black Sea fleet, as it is based in the territory of another country. According to international rules, the country needs to warn about military exercise if the number of personnel involved exceeds 7,000.

"However, the order given tonight represents a difficult situation. Experts can only guess now, whether the Kremlin was taking it in mind when thinking over these military exercises. If Russian troops are acting with no warning, it might mean there is not much respect towards the sovereignty of another country."

He added: "I don't know what reasons can be behind these actions. Maybe there is no reason. Maybe it's a permanent desire to demonstrate that Russia has stood up from its knees."

Earlier this month Russia's defence ministry announced plans to send a permanent fleet of up to six combat ships to the Mediterranean, in what some have seen as an echo, albeit on a much smaller scale, of the Soviet era Fifth Mediterranean fleet.

That fleet was permanently deployed as a counter to the US Navy's Sixth Fleet at the height of the cold war.

The fleet will be Russia's first full-time naval presence in the Mediterranean since 1992.

Russia still maintains a naval maintenance and supply base in the Syrian port of Tartus - its only military base outside the former Soviet Union - but the ongoing conflict there has threatened its long-term strategic capability.

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