RUSSIA STARTS MAJOR MILITARY EXERCISES IN THE CASPIAN SEA
MOSCOW, 1 Aug. (IPS)* Russia’s largest naval exercises in the Caspian Sea since the collapse of the Soviet Union started Thursday, dealing a humiliating blow to the diplomacy of the Islamic Republic, its main military client.
About ten thousand military men and dozens of battle planes took part in the
manoeuvres, together with Air Force and Anti-Missile Defence, Border Guard,
EMERCOM, and even customs agents, the press reported.
Units and elements of the North-Caucasian military district, militia and interior troops of the Ministry of Interior and units of the Federal Railway Troops Service and Federal Frontier Service will also participate in these wide-scale exercises, held in the Caspian Sea’s northern waters, Astrakhan and Daqestan regions.
As was officially announced, the basic goal of the exercise is to train in breaking channels that can be used by international terrorists and drug dealers in the region.
However, the exercise, that is expected to last for two weeks, looks more like a demonstration of military power, analysts pointed out.
The exercises scenario at the moment is kept secret. Nevertheless it became known to "RIA Novosti" that 57 combat and supply ships will take part in them, including amphibious hover ships and unique Orlyonok class ram-wing craft which are stationed not far from the Daqestan city of Kaspiisk, as well as 10,000 servicemen out of which 4,000 seamen of the Caspian flotilla, aviation and air defense missile forces, a flight of interceptor aircraft provided by Kazakhstan, a member of the Collective Security Treaty, and one combat vessel to represent Azerbaijan.
Special attention is to be paid to the implementation of the army's tasks, such as the firing of missiles, as well as landing operations. It is not common to fight against drug dealers with missiles.
President Vladimir Putin issued the order for the ongoing military exercises right after the end of the last Caspian Summit in the Turkmen Capital of Eshqabad last April, Russian sources reminded.
Iran immediately voiced its total opposition to the manoeuvres, with conservatives-controlled press describing the military exercises as a "unilateral" action aimed at showing the Russian hegemony over the oil and gas rich region.
It was expected that the leaders of five Caspian countries, which are Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan would agree on the issue of the sharing of the Caspian Sea waters, but the conference ended abruptly, after the Iranian President, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami refuse to budge from Tehran’s stand of equal parts for the five nations, despite huge differences in their shore lengths.
But while Iran insist on the equal sharing of the waters, Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have already signed bilateral agreements defining their mutual borders according to the principle "we divide the sea's bottom, not the water", which would leave Iran with only 12% of the Caspian seafloor, with Baku receiving the most attractive oil deposits. Turkmenistan is not happy with the plan either, although it is hard to say what they are unhappy with exactly.
Nevertheless, there are no reasons to believe that the military exercise will seriously complicate relations between Russia and Iran, as Iranian representatives are participating in the exercise as observers.
However, Moscow declined the request of Teheran to dispatch its four combat vessels to participate in the training cruise on internal Russian rivers as, according to the agreement between the USSR and Iran of 1924, there could not be any other, but Soviet, combat ship in the Caspian sea. The USSR is gone long ago but the rule is still in force. That is why Iran, like Turkmenia, will be represented at the exercises only by observers.
"One thing is certain; Moscow is strengthening its positions in the Caspian Sea. And it uses not only political, economic and diplomatic methods. ENDS CASPIAN MILITARY EXERCISES 1802
*With reports from Pravda.