Posted on 09/04/2005 11:27:45 AM PDT by SmithL
NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia - President Vladimir Putin fired the head of Russia's Navy on Sunday, and called on the new commander to boost discipline in the flagging fleet following a pair of submarine disasters.
Putin did not give a specific reason for sacking Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov and replacing him with Adm. Vladimir Masorin. But he indicated that Kuroyedov was bearing the blame for a series of embarrassments in the navy.
Last month, a mini-sub with seven men aboard was trapped at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The Navy had no means of rescuing them without emergency help from abroad.
Kuroyedov also presided over the Navy during the 2000 Kursk submarine sinking that killed 118 crew members. Last year, he publicly said that a Russian nuclear-powered missile cruiser was in such dire condition that it could explode at any moment. He was forced to retract the statement.
At a meeting at his suburban residence with the two admirals and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Putin told Kuroyedov that the Navy he inherited when he took command in 1997 was in poor shape and that it had showed signs of improvement.
"At the same time, there were difficult events, tragedies," Putin said during the meeting, which was attended by reporters. "But I would like to underline once again that with all these problems, all these tragedies, the main thing is that the Navy is undergoing a revival."
He told Masorin that he faced a difficult task, in spite of progress.
"We have seen the level of training of navy pilots and sailors, which has grown. Many naval ships have been repaired and others were launched and some of them were already commissioned," Putin said.
"We would not be able to solve all these problems even with the state's economic potential growing if we do not strengthen discipline and order and solve tasks of social protection of seamen."
Unlike the Kursk sinking, the August mini-sub crisis ended with all seven crewmen surviving unhurt - thanks to an underwater robotic vehicle sent from Britain.
The need for foreign help underlined the troubles of a Navy that once was formidable but has fallen prey to money shortages and, many critics say, poor leadership. Sea rescue vehicles were among the first Soviet-built vessels to be scrapped amid the desperate funding shortages that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Maybe he could head to New Orleans to oversee the pumping efforts... Who else is as experienced at plugging leaks by this point?
No matter whose derriere is filling the chair, the chair is always filled by a derriere. Thus the change is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
LOL You beat me to that one!
30 years ago, he would have been sent to a gulag.
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