Interesting news, any pictures?

trying to find some 😮

seems like most of their navy is using stuff of western origin rather than Russian, which is pretty much the only type they use in their army and air force

Central Asia

Caspian deal a step closer
By Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW – The decade-long dispute over how to divide the oil-rich Caspian Sea may be settled soon, claims Russia, although statements by some Russian officials indicate that Moscow still views itself a bit more equal than the other four littoral nations.

The legal status of the inland sea could be agreed “within a year”, Russia’s deputy foreign minister and Caspian envoy Viktor Kalyuzhny announced on Thursday, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the special Caspian envoys of the five littoral states in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The meeting between the representatives of Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan “opened the way towards solving the Caspian problem”, Kalyuzhny was quoted as saying by the news agency RIA.

The other littoral states appeared to echo Russia’’s optimism. A draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian is now being viewed positively by all littoral states, Azerbaijani deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said. The issue has been contentious since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Until then, the sea’s status was regulated by treaties between the Soviet Union and Iran. But the break-up of the Soviet Union led to the creation of three new independent states bordering the Caspian Sea: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. All of those countries now seek a share of its wealth.

Naval forces
Meanwhile, Moscow has raised fresh objections against new borders, naval forces and underwater pipelines in the Caspian. Russia is against setting up maritime borders in the Caspian as it would contradict the Kremlin’s idea “to share the seabed but not the water itself”, Kalyuzhny said.

Kalyuzhny also stated that Moscow no longer supported Kazakhstan’s plans to create national naval forces, Kalyuzhny announced. No new military forces are needed in the Caspian, he was quoted as saying by RIA. The Russian-backed draft of the convention implies that the Caspian Sea should become demilitarized.

However, Kazakhstan declined to accept Moscow’s rebuttal. Kazakh deputy foreign minister Kairat Abuseidov stated that his country needed a naval unit to combat terrorism, the drug trade and illegal migration.

Russian objections to the Kazakh naval plans came as a departure from Moscow’s previous supportive position. Last year, Russian officials suggested that a joint military force, including Russia and Kazakhstan, be created to safeguard Caspian security. Moscow also pledged to supply Russian military hardware, including one naval vessel, to Kazakhstan at Russia’s domestic prices.

In August 2002, Russia held unprecedented naval exercises in the Caspian Sea, with the Russian Caspian flotilla’s 60 vessels, some 10,000 servicemen and 30 aircraft taking part. About 3,000 Kazakh servicemen or roughly all country’s naval personnel took part in the exercises, which involved joint action with Russia’s Caspian Flotilla.
Russia’s Caspian flotilla has been a force for coastal defense and waterways patrol. Following the division of the Soviet Caspian flotilla in 1992 between Moscow and Baku, Russia kept three quarters of the naval vessels and personnel based in Astrakhan.

The Kazakh navy is based in Aktau and Atyrtau ports in the eastern and northern parts of the Caspian. Kazakh naval forces include some 3,000 personnel, armed with 10 imported coast guard boats and five smaller vessels.

Tehran was prohibited from having a naval force in the Caspian Sea, according to treaties between the USSR and Iran. However, in the wake of the Soviet collapse, Iran has been reported to want to turn its Caspian ports into naval bases.

Officially, Turkmenistan has no naval forces at all. However, Turkmenistan reportedly procured 20 patrol boats from Ukraine. Turkmenistan has 20 Ukraine-built patrol boats, as well as one US-built vessel. Unlike Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan owns naval facilities in Baku as well as a quarter of the former Soviet Caspian flotilla. However, Russia reportedly acquired the best vessels.

No to pipelines
Apart from insisting on its dominant military role in the Caspian, Russia also suggests that any Caspian deal should protect Moscow’s oil transit interests. “We view the construction of pipelines through the Caspian negatively,” Kalyuzhny told the meeting in Baku, adding that Russia would seek a pipeline ban as part of a future convention on the Caspian Sea’s status.

Kalyuzhny said that Moscow would seek to ban pipelines along the bottom of the sea, an idea detrimental to a US-backed project to send Caspian oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Kalyuzhny cited environmental reasons as the main argument for banning pipelines.

Construction on a pipeline between Baku and Ceyhan began last year, and the first oil is scheduled to flow through it in 2005. The Kazakh port of Aktau, across the sea from Baku, is to be linked to the pipeline by an underwater line. The pipeline, which would circumvent Russia, is backed by the US as a way to improve access to Central Asian oil.

Caspian dispute
According to treaties in 1921, 1940 and 1970, Iran controls just 13 percent of the Caspian sea and is poised to benefit greatly from equal division. After 1991, Iran suggested that the Caspian should be divided equally, with the five littoral states each receiving 20 percent of the sea. Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan support the so-called middle lines division principle, which would leave Iran with the smallest part of the Caspian.

Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov is yet to change his opposition towards bilateral Caspian deals. Moreover, Niyazov is reportedly due to travel to Tehran on March 10, presumably to discuss a joint position on the Caspian.

In the wake of a series of bilateral Caspian deals between Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, widely seen as an alternative to an overall agreement of all five Caspian littoral states, last October Kazakhstan floated an idea of a trilateral agreement in the oil-rich region, backing the Russian plan of “median line” division plan as a “just solution”.

Kazakhstan is set to become a major beneficiary of the so-called median lines division principle, which would leave it with the largest part of the Caspian. Iran and Turkmenistan would be the losers of the median lines division principle.

In recent years, there have been repeated moves to resolve disputes over the Caspian Sea. In May 2002, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a bilateral agreement on how to divide the northern Caspian. The deal implies that three hydrocarbon fields divided by the median line, Kurmangazy, Central and Khvalynskoye, would be exploited on parity basis. Last October, Putin and Azerbaijani President Geidar Aliyev signed a border agreement on defining the sea border between their respective Caspian sections.

Defense deals
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov traveled to Baku earlier in the week to clinch a bilateral arms trade deal with his Azeri counterpart Safar Abiyev. However, Ivanov pledged “not to sell destabilizing weapons” to Azerbaijan.

Ivanov dismissed talk of Russia’s long-standing bias in favor of Azerbaijan’s foe, Armenia. No evidence has been found so far relative to allegations that in 1993-1996 Russia supplied Armenia with arms worth of US$1 billion, Ivanov was quoted by RIA as saying.

Ivanov also met Azeri Prime Minister Artur Rasi-Zadeh to discuss Russia’s Gabala radar station, which is located in Azerbaijan. Russian media outlets have speculated that Moscow might want to use Gabala to monitor the US war on Iraq.

However, despite improving bilateral ties, Azerbaijan is yet to side with Russia completely. The littoral states “are independent in issues relative to safeguarding their security”, Khalafov told journalists in Baku.

Presumably to illustrate the country’s independence from Russia, on February 26 an Azeri court convicted three Azeri citizens of spying for Russia and sentenced them to 10-11 years in prison. The men were found guilty of providing the Russian military intelligence with information on the deployment of troops and military equipment in Azerbaijan. Prosecutors also accused them of providing information on Azerbaijan’s oil pipeline routes and situation around the Gabala radar station.
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KAZAKH NAVY GETS CUTTERS FROM GERMANY.

The fledgling Kazakh Navy received 4 coastal defense cutters from Germany on Monday. Officially established in mid-August, the Navy had consisted of 7 small craft from the U.S. and two made in Kazakhstan. Its main base is at Aktua (formerly Fort Shevchenko) on the Caspian Sea. (Kazakh TV, October 14 1996)