The Main Naval Parade commemorating the 326th anniversary of the Russian Navy took place on July 31 in St Petersburg and Kronstadt. It was part of the country’s Navy Day, and other parades took place in Russian naval bases in Vladivostok, Baltiysk, Severomorsk, and Kaspiysk.
The main parade was attended by the supreme commander-in-chief, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, commander-in-chief of the navy Nikolai Yevmenov, and acting commander of the Western Military District Vladimir Kochetkov. They reviewed more than 40 ships, coast-guard cutters and submarines, as well as 42 aircraft and more than 3,500 military personnel, with the frigate Admiral Gorshkov taking center stage.
As President Vladimir Putin proclaimed during his speech, “The frigate will be the first to go on combat duty … equipped with Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles” that can travel at nine times the speed of sound. The hypersonic missile systems have no equivalent in the world and “will be supplied to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation within the next month,” the Russian leader added.
It is worth noting that the main naval event this year was celebrated for the sixth time in the modern history of the country in St Petersburg and coincided with the 350th birth anniversary of the founder of the Russian Regular Navy, Peter the Great.
According to tradition, to pay tribute to Russian sailors’ bravery and service in protecting the interests of the Motherland, the St George flag of the battleship Azov and the Order Naval Flag of the USSR of the cruiser Aurora were raised on the spire of the Admiralty’s tower.
From the geopolitical point of view, the most critical part of the parade took place at the St Petersburg State History Museum in the St Peter and Paul Fortress. During the ceremony, President Putin approved the new Naval Doctrine of the Russian Federation and the Russian Navy Regulations by signing two executive orders.
This move had been signaled in May by Yury Borisov, the deputy prime minister for defense at the time, who emphasized the need to adjust the national maritime doctrine to the ongoing hybrid war against Russia conducted by the collective West.
In fact, the new 55-page policy document is strikingly different from its predecessor published in 2015. It portrays the US as the main threat to Russia’s national interests in what it calls the “World Ocean” and outlines strategic steps needed to be taken to secure those interests.
“The major challenges and threats to the national security and the sustainable development of the Russian Federation related to the World Ocean are the US strategic course towards dominance in the World Ocean and its global influence on international processes, including those related to the use of transportation lanes and energy resources of the World Ocean,” reads the document.
According to the new doctrine, Washington and its Western allies are attempting to prevent Moscow from undisturbed access to maritime resources and vitally important transportation lanes.
That is why Russia’s new strategic objectives focus on raising the “navy’s operational (combat) capabilities for ensuring national security of the Russian Federation and protecting its national interests in the World Ocean,” as well as increasing the efficiency of defending its 37,650-kilometer coastline.
Focusing on facilitating Russia’s “status of a great maritime power, whose activities are aimed at maintaining strategic stability in the World Ocean,” the new document clearly defines the boundaries and areas of Russia’s national interests.
Putin confirmed during his address at the Main Naval Parade that they consist of “the Arctic, the Black Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Bering Sea, and the Baltic and Kuril Straits.” The Russian leader also stressed that his country “will ensure their protection rigorously and [by] using all available tools.”
The new Naval Doctrine’s top priority is to preserve Russia’s “independence, state and territorial integrity and the inviolability of its sovereignty” in the World Ocean. To that end, the document clearly distinguishes the country’s areas of interest in the region by dividing them into “vitally important,” “important,” and “others.”
As far as the “vitally important” category is concerned, the naval doctrine includes Russia’s territorial waters, its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and the continental shelf beyond its limits in the Arctic Basin, including the waters of the Northern Sea Route, the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Russian part of the Caspian Sea.
To defend them, Moscow is determined not only to use soft-power means but also to employ “military and force methods, including naval presence, the demonstration of the flag and force.” Moreover, it may “use military force in line with national laws and generally recognized principles and norms of international law, if need be.”
When it comes to “important” areas, they cover the waters adjacent to the Russian coastline, including the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, the eastern Mediterranean, the Baltic and Kuril straits, and global transportation routes.
Although Russia is keen to “use mostly political, diplomatic, information and other non-force instruments” to keep these areas safe, it does not rule out the possibility of using “military forces proportionally to the situation.” Nonetheless, this can only happen if non-lethal means fail to bring the desired outcome.
The use of political and diplomatic means and other non-lethal procedures is strictly reserved for the “others” category.
Interestingly, the new Naval Doctrine emphasizes the importance of the Arctic and Pacific to Russia’s national interest at the expense of the Atlantic region, which is determined by the changing geopolitical activity of the US.
In this regard, Moscow plans to strengthen the combat potential of the forces (troops) of the Northern and Pacific Fleets and FSB (Federal Security Service) bodies, as well as intensifying maritime activities on the archipelagos of Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya and Wrangel Island.
On top of that, the phrase “using the capabilities of other states that are Russia’s allies and partners to realize the national interests of the Russian Federation in the World Ocean” was included in the document. In particular, this relates to the country’s cooperation with Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and India, whose status has been upgraded from “friendly ties” to “strategic partnership.”
Finally, in its race for maritime sovereignty, Russia also expresses the need to develop the domestic shipbuilding sector in the Far East “independently of the external situation,” with the construction of large-capacity vessels, including modern aircraft carriers for the navy, being the priority. Furthermore, the necessity to build port and information infrastructure was also highlighted.
On October 30, 1696, the Boyar Duma adopted a decision to establish a national regular navy with the “Naval ships have got to be!” verdict to Peter the Great’s decree, and the newly born Russian fleet accounted for 40 sailing and 113 rowing ships ready for combat use by 1700.
More than 300 years have passed since then. And for all these years, the navy has been the primary source of pride and strength for the Russian state.
Entering the new era of great-power competition and the United States’ visible appetite to dominate the World Ocean, Russia and its navy seem to be up to the job by adapting the late Admiral Sergey Gorshkov’s ideology to the 21st-century maritime realities and remain “capable of instantly responding to all those who decide to impinge on its sovereignty and freedom.”