俄罗斯挑战美国海洋霸权？
2022-09-04 07:16阅读：
Russia's challenge to US dominance in the world's
seas
Moscow's new Naval Doctrine portrays the US as the main threat to
Russia's national interests in the 'World Ocean'
By ADRIEL KASONTA
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 g
o 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.”
