On Thursday, a Russian spy ship reportedly sunk after it, unfortunately, collided with a freighter collision with a freighter carrying sheep.
What happened?
The Russian Navy vessel Liman, officially a “research ship” assigned to the country’s Black Sea Fleet, hit another vessel off the Turkish coast and suffered a catastrophic hull breach. Dense fog in the area at the time was likely a factor for the collision to have occurred. The Turkish Coast Guard rescued all 78 members of the crew.
The accident reportedly occurred near Turkey’s Bosphorus strait. The accident underscores the busy nature of the strategic entry point into the the Black Sea and why Russia is actively seeking military bases along the Mediterranean.
Crew members rescued safe and sound:
“All of the crew members of the Black Sea Fleet’s research vessel Liman are safe and sound and are preparing for evacuation from a Turkish rescue vessel to a Russian ship,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russian authorities initially identified the other ship as the “Ashot-7.” However, widespread media reports said the Togo-flagged Youzarsif-H, carrying nearly 9,000 sheep from Romania en route to Jordan, was actually the other vessel involved in the incident.
State of the art spy ship:
Despite its official classification, the Liman, a Project 861 Moma-class, is designed to gather intelligence above and below the waves. The ships have radars, hydro-acoustic listening gear, and other, unspecified “reconnaissance equipment,” according to RT. These sensors allow the crew to locate, track, and scoop up information about both surface ships and submarines. Before the accident, Russia had three of these Polish-built Soviet-era ships, which have a displacement of 1,560 tons, still in service.
Congested Bosphorus strait:
Collisions and other accidents in and around the narrow Bosphorus are not unheard of. A major shipping route and the only way in and out of the Black Sea, civilian and military ships frequently make the passage. A list on Wikipedia describes more than 450 incidents, which included numerous wrecks and fatalities, which occurred between 1953 and 2002.
For the Kremlin, the route is, unfortunately, the only way to get from its bases along the Black Sea out into the Mediterranean and beyond. And since Moscow forcefully annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and began actively supporting rebel groups in that country’s eastern provinces, this strategic complexity of the arrangement have only become more pronounced for the Russian Navy.
Tense relations with the U.S:
Of the countries that sit along the Black Sea, three are NATO members – Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Ukraine and Georgia both have tense relations with Russia and routinely conduct military exercises with their American counterparts. After Moscow forcefully annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region and then began supporting separatists in that country’s eastern provinces, the United States only stepped up these practice sessions. The Kremlin responded with increasing harassment and monitoring of U.S. Navy ships. In 2016, Liman itself sortied out to keep an eye on Exercise Sea Breeze along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast.
Conclusion:
The loss of Liman in a simple accident can only serve to reinforce this existing desire to find additional ways to avoid the Bosphorus altogether, regardless of any diplomatic considerations.
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Source: The Drive
