Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu sacked the commander of the Baltic Sea Fleet (based out of Baltiysk, Kaliningrad oblast), Vice Admiral Viktor Kravchuk, and his chief of staff, Vice Admiral Sergey Popov, on June 29 (Vesti.ru, June 29). Days later, news emerged that a number of other Baltic Fleet officers—about 50 according to Russian media—have also been dismissed and forced to leave the Armed Forces or were transferred to other fleets and demoted (Flot.com, July 1). The reasons for these harsh measures—“surgery without anesthesia” as Russian media sources characterized it—were “serious deficiencies in the organization of training and the …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation