Russia Deploys Flagship Aircraft Carrier To Syria Coast

Wednesday, September 21, 2016
By Paul Martin

by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sep 21, 2016

Back in the summer of 2013, just around the peak of the first major escalation involving Syria and the US attempt to remove its president al-Assad, the Mediterranean briefly looked like a parking lot, with US and Russian ships on anchor just off the Syrian coast prepared for any eventuality.

Then, last year, around the time Russia announced it would deploy its air force to Syria for the first time, we predicted that sooner or later, the naval phase of the Syrian conflict would ratner and lead to a repeat of the events from the summer of 2013. So, one year later, precisely this sequence of events now appears to be in place: earlier today, Russia’s defence minister said Wednesday that Moscow was dispatching its flagship aircraft carrier to bolster its forces in the eastern Mediterranean off Syria.

The Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier would be sent to join Russia’s current naval deployment there, minister Sergei Shoigu said during a televised meeting.

“At the moment the Russian task force in the Eastern Mediterranean consists of no fewer than six combat ships and three or four logistic ships from all fleets” the minister said adding that “to build up the group’s combat capabilities we plan to reinforce it with an Admiral Kuznetsov-led group,” Shoigu told a meeting of the Defense Ministry’s board. He added that the Russian Navy has been permanently present in the Eastern Mediterranean since 2013.

While Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria for the past year in support of Bashar al-Assad and has deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation, this is the first time that the Soviet-era Kuznetsov – Russia’s only aircraft carrier that is part of its Northern fleet based in Murmansk – will join the Russian deployment after undergoing a refurbishment.

The Rest…HERE

Leave a Reply

Join the revolution in 2018. Revolution Radio is 100% volunteer ran. Any contributions are greatly appreciated. God bless!

Follow us on Twitter