Russia vows to not use Black Sea base for attacks

21 May 2010, 18:00 PM

President Dmitry Medvedev on May 18 moved to assure the West and states with Black Sea coastlines that Russia would not use its military base on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea to attack a foreign country. Medvedev's comments came just under a month after he unexpectedly agreed on a deal with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to extend the lease of the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet by at least 25 years. "Will Russia use its Black Sea Fleet to attack neighboring states? It will not. We are a peaceful nation," Medvedev told students at a top Ukrainian university in Kiev. "We are all adults, no one wants a return to the Soviet past." The fleet's base in Crimea, which juts out into the Black Sea, enjoys a key strategic position and there have been fears in some quarters that a resurgent Russia could use the base to attack third countries. The Russian Black Sea Fleet played a role in the August 2008 war with pro-Western Georgia, which has a Black Sea coastline. The deal over the extension of the fleet's lease, for which Ukraine was given a substantial discount on Russian gas prices, also provoked the ire of Ukrainian nationalists who denounced it as state treason. www.defensenews.com