... hegemon.
Obviously, this naval task force would be designed to offset Russia’s military footprint in the Black Sea region, which has dramatically increased following the annexation of Crimea and the ongoing fortification of the peninsula[2]. The Russian Black Sea Fleet has been slated for modernization since late 2000s, with the induction of new surface and submarine platforms, some of which being already dispatched (2 diesel SSK equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, while 4 additional units should be ...
... status of the Russian »), Ria Novosti, February 23, 2014.
[2] The Kharkov Agreement signed on April 21, 2010, by presidents Dmitri Medvedev and Viktor Yanukovich renewed the Russian-Ukrainian agreements of 1997 in extending by 25 years the stay of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. In return, Kiev obtained a rebate on the Russian gas.
[3] « Crimée : 96,77% des électeurs pour le rattachement à la Russie » (« Crimea : 96,77% of the voters in favor of the integration ...
... the ports in the Sea of Azov, are likely to benefit from smaller investments and to remain maritime assets of second or even third importance devoted to other maritime activities (like yachting for instance). Two maritime poles are about to emerge on Russian Black Sea coasts: Crimea and Novorossiysk, and their respective development should provide, by 2020, the Black Sea Fleet with the infrastructures it needs to support its activity. More broadly, should Moscow’s efforts continue, in the long term, the annexation of Crimea is likely to sustain Russia’s shift toward the oceans by providing to the ...
... restrictions imposed by the Ukrainian government under the 1997 and 2010 bilateral agreements on the use of military assets leased by Russia in the Crimean peninsula. Last April 2, Vladimir Putin terminated a serial of Russian-Ukrainian treaties on the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Russian-Ukrainian agreement on parameters of division of the Black Sea Fleet signed on May 28, 1997, the treaty on status and terms of deployment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine (May 28, 1997), the treaty on mutual settlements ...
... insisting on signing a political agreement separately from the Black Sea Fleet agreement, leaving the entire matter up in the air.
The negotiations were restarted from scratch. As a result, on 9 June 1995, an agreement was signed in Sochi under which Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and Ukraine’s Navy were to be based separately and Sevastopol was given the status of the main base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Property issues were to be settled on the basis of an earlier agreement to split the assets evenly....
