Russian port in syria. Why does Russia need a naval base in Syrian Tartus

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The partially preserved huge citadel of Tartus (Tortosa, 10th century) was at one time the last stronghold of the Knights Templar in the Holy Land. Here are the remains of the city of the Crusaders and the Cathedral of the Tartu Mother of God - a unique example of a fortified church (one of the first structures of this type in the Gothic style). After the Muslims conquered the city, the church was used as a mosque, in the Ottoman period - as a barracks. Under French rule, the building was restored and now houses a museum.

The historic center of Tartus consists of modern buildings built on the walls and inside the walls of the fortress from the times of the Crusaders.

The historical center of Tartus consists of modern buildings built on the walls and inside the walls of the fortress from the times of the Crusaders, from which the moat still separates the old city from the new.

Tartus itself is the second largest port city in Syria after Latakia, where a Russian naval base is located.

How to get there

The bus company Kadmous has an office in the city center, near the park. Buses from here leave for Damascus (every hour, on the way 5 hours, from 120 SYP), Aleppo (120 SYP, 5 hours), Hama (70 SYP, 1.5 hours) and Homs (70 SYP, on the way 1 hour). In addition, minibuses run to Latakia (40 SYP, 1 hour on the way) and Banias (15 SYP, 30 minutes) - departures every 15-20 minutes.

Al-Ahliah, headquartered in the south of the city, organizes the same flights at the same cost, the only difference being that Al-Ahliah has slightly less daily flights than competitor Kadmous.

A taxi in the city will not cost more than 35 SYP.

Prices on the page are for June 2016.

What to see

In the museum of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Tartu, you can see an exhibition of various archaeological finds made in Tartus and the surrounding area, as well as exhibits brought from Raqqa and other regions of the country. Opening hours: 9: 00-16: 00 in winter, 9: 00-18: 00 in summer. Closed on Tuesday.

In the Museum of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Tartu, you can see an exhibition of various archaeological finds made in and around Tartus.

3 km from Tartus is the picturesque islet of Arvad (the only one in Syria), where the crusaders held out the longest. The fortress towering over the island, now a museum, reminds of this glorious past. Opening hours: 9: 00-16: 00 in winter and 9: 00-17: 00 in summer. Closed on Tuesday.

Another fortress, Arab, is located to the right of the Arvada pier (tourists are not allowed inside the structure). You can get to Arvada by water taxi in 20 minutes.

Questions about Syria

Mediterranean coast of Syria

• Where to stay: In the very high-quality hotels of the Latakia resort area of ​​Shatt-al-Azrak - there are not many accommodation options here, but their category is high, mainly four or five "stars". There are almost no hotel options in Tartus (and the Russian naval base does not yet accept chilling compatriots), so you can only come here on an excursion.
• What to see: Ancient Roman monuments and medieval churches

About the naval base of the Russian Federation in the Syrian Tartus. The document signed in Damascus on January 18, 2017 serves to mutually strengthen the defense capabilities of the parties. It regulates the expansion of the territory of the material and technical support point (PMTO) of the Russian Navy in the area of ​​the port of Tartus, calls of Russian warships into the territorial sea, internal waters and ports of the SAR.

Syria transfers land plots and water areas in the area of ​​the port of Tartus, as well as real estate objects to the Russian side for free use for the entire duration of the agreement. The agreement defines the procedure for registration and movement of vehicles, military equipment, the use of weapons, the use of communications and electronic warfare. The personnel, crew members, as well as movable and immovable property of the logistics center acquire special privileges and immunities.

The document creates the international legal basis for a long-term Russian naval presence in the region. Valid for 49 years with automatic renewal options for 25-year periods.

How much does Russia need a naval base in Syria, and how will it affect the military-political situation in the Middle East and the Mediterranean?

Goodwill and legitimate power

Two years ago, Russia launched an air operation in Syria at the request of the legitimate government. She presented the world community with legitimate powers and military means, immediate and long-term goals. Subsequently, the Aerospace Forces and the Navy used conventional (conventional) weapons in Syria and did not violate a single principle of international law. Overcoming the resistance of the American coalition, Russia defended the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a friendly Middle Eastern state by military means, in fact, changed history.

And she stayed in the region to project goodwill, which was backed up by legitimate power.

Defending Syrian independence, Russia for the first time and very effectively used missile weapons of the Navy against the IS and other terrorist groups banned in the Russian Federation. Increasing the military interaction between the Aerospace Forces and the Navy, in the fall of 2016, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation quite naturally came to the need to expand the infrastructure of the Navy in Syria.

On Tuesday, December 26, 2017, Russia received broad powers and unlimited opportunities for the development of naval infrastructure in the port of Tartus. After modernization, the Russian base will be able to receive ships of the first rank, including nuclear cruisers and submarines. Of course, Russia's permanent naval presence is not an end in itself, but an instrument of geopolitical influence in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Military cooperation between Moscow and Damascus began with the emergence of the Syrian state. In the 1970s, more than 75% of the weapons of the Syrian army were Soviet. At the same time, a permanent Mediterranean squadron was formed and a logistics center for the Soviet Navy was created in Tartus.

Pivot Points in the World Ocean

Earlier, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the possible return of military bases to Cuba and Vietnam, information appeared about Russia's plans regarding the Sidi Barrani naval base in Egypt. Moscow is rethinking its decisions to liquidate foreign military facilities, and explains this by negative changes in the international situation.

Against the background of Russian peace-loving foreign policy since the end of the last century, the United States and NATO have conducted a significant part of their military operations without UN sanction - in Serbia (1995 and 1999), in Afghanistan (since 2001), in Iraq (2003), in Pakistan, Yemen , Somalia (2002). This is not counting the questionable military operations with the permission of the UN - in Iraq (1991), Somalia (1993) and Libya (2011). Refined peacefulness does not work in the modern world. One cannot help but recall that Soviet (Russian) military bases previously supported geopolitical stability in different parts of the world.

The main Soviet and then the most important Russian foreign electronic intelligence center operated in Lourdes, Cuba. Until 2002, Vietnamese Cam Ranh housed a large Soviet and Russian naval base, which was modestly called a logistics center. Russia eliminated these bases, and earlier withdrew its troops from Eastern Europe. In return, she received NATO bases in Romania and Bulgaria, an American missile defense position area in Poland and the Czech Republic, and forward battalions of the alliance in the Baltic countries. No, it is no coincidence that Moscow initiated negotiations with Vietnam and Cuba on the basing of the Russian Navy in Cam Ranh and the resumption of the center in Lourdes.

The Cam Ranh site allows Russia to effectively project power in the Indian and South Pacific Oceans. The deep-water Cam Ranh Bay, closed from storms, is of strategic importance to replenish stocks (repair) of warships on the routes between the Russian Far East and the Gulf of Aden. The presence here of Russian Il-78 tanker aircraft (for refueling strategic Tu-95 bombers), repair and maintenance of Russian submarines, and a simplified entry of Russian Navy ships into Cam Ranh are determined by an interstate agreement. At the same time, Russia is developing the Vietnamese infrastructure of a large international center for the provision of civilian ships and warships.

The power of the equipment of the radio-electronic center in Lourdes, Cuba (250 km from the American coast) made it possible, since 1967, to conduct effective radio reconnaissance throughout the entire depth of the United States. In the early 1990s, up to 1,500 Russian servicemen performed missions here. Today in Lourdes there is a Cuban University, which trains computer specialists. If necessary, this abundance of personnel will allow the Russian Ministry of Defense to quickly create a new center here.

Russia is also in talks with Egypt on the lease of military facilities in the coastal city of Sidi Barrani, 95 kilometers from the border with Libya. The Soviet Navy used this base until 1972 to monitor the US Navy. The revival - in the format of the PMTO and the air force base - will take place no earlier than 2019, and will certainly help in solving the geopolitical problems of the Middle East and North Africa.

Russia is returning to big geopolitics.

And foreign military bases ensure the security of the main sea communications, increase the combat stability of the Navy, bring missile weapons closer to strategic targets (territories) of a potential enemy, and make potentially dangerous areas and crisis regions accessible.

TASS-DOSSIER / Valery Korneev /. On October 10, 2016, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Nikolai Pankov announced Russia's intention to establish a permanent base of the Russian Navy in the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus.

It will be created on the basis of the 720th logistics center (PMTO) of the Russian Navy. Tartous is located 160 km north-west of Damascus; PMTO occupies the northern part of the port.

The intergovernmental agreement between the Soviet Union and the Syrian Arab Republic on the basing of facilities of the USSR Navy in Tartus was signed in 1971. The base was created for the repair, supply of fuel and consumables to ships and vessels of the 5th operational (Mediterranean) squadron of ships of the USSR Navy (1967-1992 biennium). The main potential enemy of this squadron during the Cold War was the US 6th Operational Fleet, headquartered in Gaeta, Italy (moved to Naples in 2004).

In 1977, by agreement with the Syrian authorities, the 54th Soviet operational brigade of auxiliary vessels was relocated to Tartus from the Egyptian ports of Alexandria and Mersa Matruh. This was done after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat changed the priorities of Egyptian foreign policy, curtailing military cooperation with the Soviet Union and starting an active rapprochement with the United States. In April of the same year, the administration of the 229th division of sea and raid support vessels was formed in Tartus, which was subordinate to the commander of the brigade of support vessels of the Black Sea Fleet.

By the decision of the Politburo of May 12, 1983, during 1984 in Tartus, the 720th point of material and technical support of the Black Sea Fleet was deployed, which was subordinate to the Deputy Commander of the Black Sea Fleet for logistics. The station included three floating berths PM-61MM, a floating workshop (changed every six months), storage facilities, barracks and various utility facilities.

State after the collapse of the USSR

On December 31, 1992, the Mediterranean squadron ceased to exist (by that time, the 5th operational flotilla). At the same time, Russia retained the 720th PMTO, which in 1992-2007. was used to replenish fuel and food supplies on the ships of the Russian Navy, which carried out one-time cruises in the Mediterranean Sea.

On August 21, 2008, during negotiations between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Sochi, the issue of the state of the PMTO in Tartus was discussed, where at that time only one of the floating berths was operating.

In September of the same year, another floating berth was restored by the crew of the auxiliary vessel KIL-158 of the Black Sea Fleet. In 2009-2010 planned repairs of infrastructure facilities were carried out.

"Syrian Express" and the operation of the RF Armed Forces

After the outbreak of the armed conflict in Syria in 2011, Russia continued to provide military assistance to this country within the framework of previously concluded military-technical cooperation contracts.

In June 2012, the PMTO in Tartus began to be used for the supply of Russian weapons and military supplies to Syria - first under the agreements of 2006-2007, then as military aid to the Syrian government.

On September 22, 2013, the Mediterranean squadron of the Russian Navy was created, the composition of which is changing on a rotational basis (ships and vessels of the Pacific, Northern, Baltic and Black Sea fleets are involved). The Ministry of Defense entrusted the repair and maintenance of this operational unit to the Tartu PMTO, a decision was made to further modernize it.

After on September 30, 2015, at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia launched an Aerospace Forces operation in Syria against the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groups banned in Russia, the Russian military group is being supplied through Tartus. Transportation of goods is carried out by large landing ships and auxiliary ships of the Navy through the Black Sea straits (the so-called "Syrian Express").

In the fall of 2015, the Russian side carried out dredging and expansion of the mooring front of the 720th PMTO in Tartus. On October 4, 2016, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense Igor Konashenkov told reporters that the "naval base in Tartus" and the ships of the Mediterranean squadron located in the coastal zone will be covered from the air by the battery of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system delivered to Syria.

Tartus (Arabic :) is the second largest port city in Syria after Latakia, the administrative center of Tartus Governorate.

In Latin, the city was called Antaradus, the crusaders called it Antartus or Tortosa.

Geography

Tartous is located 220 km northwest of Damascus and less than an hour's drive south of Latakia. The distance to the border with Lebanon is 90 km. The port of the city housed a Soviet, and at the moment - a Russian naval base.

Climate

The climate in Tartous is temperate Mediterranean. The air temperature in summer is 30-35 ° C, in winter the temperature can drop to 5-10 ° C, and sometimes to zero. Average annual precipitation is 1000 mm.

Russian military base

Tartus is home to the only Russian military base in the far abroad - a logistics center for the Russian Navy, where Russian warships can be based in the Mediterranean Sea. The military base has existed since 1971. The base in Tartus was created to support the operations of the fleet in the Mediterranean Sea - repairing ships, supplying them with fuel and consumables. The logistics center in Tartus consists of floating berths PM61M, a floating workshop (changes every six months), storage facilities, barracks and various utility facilities. The facility is served by 50 Russian military sailors.

History

From the time of the Phoenicians, very few ruins have survived in Tartus - at that time the neighboring settlement on Arvada, the only island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Syria, was much larger and more important.

The city was in honor of the Emperor Constantine due to the fact that the people of Tartus worshiped the Virgin Mary. It is believed that the first chapel in her honor was built in Tartus in the 3rd century. Two centuries later, an earthquake destroyed the chapel, but the altar miraculously survived. The Church of Our Lady of Tartu was built in honor of this event by the crusaders in 1123. This church houses the ancient altar, which is visited by pilgrims from all over the world. After the Muslims conquered the city, the church was used as a mosque, and in the Ottoman period - as a barracks. Under French rule, the building was restored and is now a museum.

At one time, Tartus was under the control of the Templars, who improved the defensive structures in the city and on the island of Arvad. Saladin conquered the outskirts of the city from the Templars in 1188, and the Templars themselves closed tightly in the city. However, Tartus remained under the control of the Templars until 1291, when they fled to Arwad, where they remained for 10 years. One of the Crusader fortresses, Markab, is located near the nearby coastal town of Baniyas and is still in very good condition.

The historic center of Tartus consists of more modern buildings, built on the walls and inside the walls of the Crusader fortress, from which the moat still separates the old city from the new. Several historical monuments have survived inside the fortress.

October 10 Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia Nikolay Pankov at a meeting of the international committee of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation said that the Ministry of Defense was preparing documents to create a permanent Russian naval base in Syrian Tartus. At the same time, it became known that the RF Ministry of Defense was negotiating the lease of a number of military facilities in Egypt. In particular, the Russian side's interest in access to the runway at the Sidi Barrani airbase was voiced.

Which of this is real and which is not? The correspondent dealt with the issue of Russian bases in the Mediterranean Federal News Agency.

720th PMTO

The presence of the domestic navy in Tartus, the second largest port in Syria after Latakia, has a long history.

The logistics center for the Navy in Tartus appeared in the USSR in 1971 in accordance with a bilateral agreement between Moscow and Damascus. Initially, this PMTO was created to support the actions of ships and vessels of the 5th operational squadron (5th OPESK) operating in the Mediterranean Sea, their supply with fuel, water and consumables.

At the same time, the PMTO in Tartus first of all played the role of a kind of "gas station" and only secondly - a place for a small inter-passage repair. The performance of the latter function was provided by one of the floating workshops of the Black Sea Fleet, which were "on duty" in shifts in Tartus. Medium repairs of ships and vessels of the 5th OPESK could be carried out in Syrian Latakia or Egyptian Alexandria. For major repairs, as a rule, it was necessary to return to Sevastopol or Nikolaev.

Since 1984, the PMTO of the USSR Navy in Tartus became known as the 720th PMTO. The military command of the USSR hatched extremely ambitious plans for Syria, including the construction of a large Soviet naval base on the Syrian coast between Latakia and Tartus, capable of fully covering all the needs of the 5th OPESK. However, until the collapse of the USSR, these plans could not be implemented.

For a long time after 1991, the 720th PMTO vegetated in a semi-abandoned state. It was only in the summer of 2015 that it found a new life and became the main naval "gateway" for the supply of the Russian military group in the Syrian theater of military operations.

At the same time, at least four problems immediately "popped up".

Tartus problems

The dramatically increased volumes of traffic from Novorossiysk and Sevastopol, carried out by the "Syrian Express", quickly exceeded the capabilities of the PMTO in terms of operational unloading of arriving units. The capacity of the civilian port of Tartus helped to avoid overstocking, but given the special nature of the cargo, this was, of course, a palliative decision. For the normal implementation of the unloading and storage of the delivered military cargo, the PMTO requires the modernization of its own port equipment and the expansion of storage areas.

The second “bottleneck” of Tartus was its port basins and entrance fairway. Due to the peculiarities of local hydrology and the inaction of the Syrian port services, the basins and the fairway have to be cleaned regularly. Barrels, booms, dead anchors and cables laid along the bottom have to be renewed and repaired just as regularly in Tartus. It was not the Syrians who had to undertake these works, but the killer ship of the Black Sea Fleet.

The third problem is rather weak, by the standards of the Russian Armed Forces, Tartus Air Defense and the almost complete absence of a capable water area protection service in the port. In order to eliminate these "gaps" in the security perimeter of the 720th PMTO, relatively recently, the S-300 air defense missile system was transferred from Russia to Tartus. Even earlier, the KIL-158 killer vessel delivered two Project 03160 Raptor patrol boats to Tartus, which partially resolved the issue of protecting the water area.

Finally, another problem of the 720th PMTO after the summer of 2015 was the need to maintain at the proper level of technical readiness not only of the units from the Syrian Express, but also of the pennants of the operational formation of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea, recreated in 2013. The construction of a shipyard and a dry dock in the interests of the PMTO, begun in Tartus back in Soviet times, was never completed. For objective reasons, the relocation of one of the floating docks available to the Russian Federation to Tartus also turned out to be impossible.

Thus, initially focused only on the possibility of a small inter-trip repair, the PMTO now has only the floating workshop of the Black Sea Fleet. That, of course, limits the repair capabilities of the "seven hundred and twentieth" and reduces the time spent by ships and vessels of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea.

What will happen next?

As we can see, the Russian military leadership to one degree or another managed to solve three of the four listed problems. The question of increasing repair capacities in Tartus remained open. But the fact of the matter is that this "legacy of the Soviet past" made sense to implement only in a situation of complete confidence that "Tartusnash". In other words, only in the variant when this port becomes on a permanent basis the base of the Russian Navy.

It must be assumed that now, when Moscow's interest in such a basing point is no longer in doubt, the issue of carrying out medium repairs of ships and vessels in Tartus will also be resolved.

What awaits the 720th PMTO in the near future? We can expect the modernization of port equipment, further dredging in the port and in the entrance fairway, the expansion of the warehouse space of the PMTO and the completion of a shipyard in Tartus.

Here is an opinion on the prospects of the 720th PMTO Pavel Vishnyakov, captain of the 1st rank of the reserve, in the past - the flagship navigator of the 130th brigade of anti-submarine ships, deputy chief of staff of the 2nd division of anti-submarine ships for combat training: “Tartus is a good place in every sense. At the moment, all this, of course, is not deployed, but in two or three years they will make a pretty decent base, especially if the land is cut more - not all infrastructure can be afloat. "

As a result, the RF Ministry of Defense will receive a two-component system of permanent basing of our Armed Forces in Syria at its disposal. Its air component will be located at the Khmeimim airbase, and its naval component (transport hub, PMTO and dry dock shipyard) - in Tartus. This is all the easier to implement because such a scheme will make maximum use of the infrastructure already available and used by the Russian Federation in Syria.

Not only tourists want to go to Egypt

Russia is expanding its military-strategic partnership in the Middle East. At the same time, it naturally returns to the borders that the USSR once occupied. In general, this is a completely logical tendency, directly arising from the desire to protect Russian geopolitical interests against the background of the ongoing confrontation with the West.

Note that this trend is pushing the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to return not only to the Mediterranean outposts, but also much further. It is not without reason that, in addition to the permanent revival of the Mediterranean operational formation of the Navy, the transformation of the 720th PMTO of the Navy into a permanent base of the Navy, the receipt of an indefinite lease of the Khmeimim airbase and talks about the possible lease of facilities in Egypt, representatives of the RF Ministry of Defense are talking about the desirability of returning to Cuba and to Vietnam. Recall that until 2002, a powerful Russian electronic tracking center operated in Lourdes, Cuba, and a large Russian naval base was located in the Vietnamese port of Cam Ranh.

At the same time, one should not fall into excessive euphoria against the background of such a multitude of potential plans. In theory, the RF Armed Forces can actually lease the Sidi Barrani runway and the PMTO point in Mersa Matruh Bay from the Egyptian authorities. Plus - there is a ship parking equipped on the shallows, the so-called. “Point 52”, which once bore the nickname “Selivanovka villages” (in honor of one of the commanders of the 5th OPESK). Looking back at the Soviet experience, to this list of "wishes" can be added the possibility of basing Russian ships and vessels in the Egyptian Port Said.