Monthly Highlights from the Russian Arctic, October 2024
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
News
Publish date: April 17, 1997
Written by: Igor Kudrik
News
"Peter the Great" arrived at Severomorsk on November 24 last year. In the beginning of 1997 the second stage of the cruiser’s test program was to be performed. Lack of funding forced the Navy to postpone these plans. Now "Peter the Great" is stuck in the home port of the Northern Fleet, unable to continue testing because of a money squeeze, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
Captain Yaroslav Kalyanov, a spokesman for the Northern Fleet in Severomorsk, said that some 30 million USD are needed to complete the testing of the ship.
The construction of "Peter the Great" was launched in 1986. Due to lacking funds it took 10 years to build the vessel. Total construction costs amounted to 1 billion USD. A number of experts claimed that the Russian Navy does not need Peter the Great. The lack of functioning infrastructure in the Navy for vessels of this class makes them impossible to operate properly. Two nuclear-powered cruisers of the same class have been idling in Severomorsk for the last few years, due to technical difficulties with maintenance and refuelling operations.
In spite of the criticism, it was cheaper to finish the construction of "Peter the Great" than to dismantle it. The Ministry of Defence still owes the Baltiisky shipyard more than 11 million USD for building the ship.
Today the crew onboard "Peter the Great" is unpaid, while penniless civilian testing experts allege that thefts of equipment from the ship is a growing problem.
In case the necessary money is delivered in the foreseeable future, tests on "Peter the Great" will continue for another six moths. This is quite unlikely though, given that total state debts to the Northern Fleet have reached 260 million USD.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
A visit last week by Vladimir Putin and a Kremlin entourage to Astana, Kazakhstan sought in part to put Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, on good footing with local officials.
Russia is formally withdrawing from a landmark environmental agreement that channeled billions in international funding to secure the Soviet nuclear legacy, leaving undone some of the most radioactively dangerous projects and burning one more bridge of potential cooperation with the West.