Russian Navy Chief Fired

Russia’s Navy Chief, Admiral Vladimir Masorin was fired by President Putin this past Thursday.  In a terse announcement, Ria Novostia noted that he had "been dismissed due to length-of-service limitations."  Over at the English-language daily, Moscow Times, speculation is that it came in the wake of having accepted an award from the outgoing CNO and soon to be chairman of the JCS, ADM Mike Mullen, who presented a Legion of Merit to Masroin (see picture) on the occasion of his 60th birthday during a recent Washington visit.  In doing so, Masorin may have upset senior defense ministry personnel and President Putin by accepting a foreign award with out first clearing it with ministry personnel. Masorin was appointed by Putin to the post in 2005 amidst speculation that he was a caretaker, holding the position until a younger candidate could come along.  

Masorin took the reins at time widely regarded as the nadir to the post-Cold War Russian Navy.  Recall that Masorin’s predecessor, Vladimir Kuroedov had presided over a fleet that was best remembered not for its combat prowess, but for a legacy of spectacular failures and tragedies, highlighted by the loss of the Kursk with all hands (118) and the debacle of the fumbling rescue attempts that followed in August 2002.  This was followed barely a year later with the loss of the de-commissioned nuclear sub K-159 which sunk with 9 sailors while being towed to the scrapping facility.  Images of a be-calmed navy, either rusting at anchorage or being sold off in what was described as a "fire-sale" to other countries were prevelant, but the final straw evidently came during the practice for Navy Day 2005 in St. Petersburg.  At the time (Spetember 2005) Russia’s daily online, Kommersant, reported:

 At the time of the Kursk and K-159 losses, it was felt there were no suitable senior officers for appointment as Kuroedov’s succsessor, and Kuroedov managed to successfully transfer blame to his subordinates.  When he was dismissed in 2005, however, Masorin, who had successful tours as the head of the Caspian and Black Sea fleets and supervised the rescue operations for the rescue sub AS-28.   Since assuming the helm, Masorin has presided over a resurgent Russian Navy, at least in terms of budget and construction, with plans for consolidation of missions on platforms, construction of new classes and weapons with long-range plans for up to as many as 6 new carrier groups.

When he was appointed, it was well known that Masorin was within two years of statutory retirement and speculation centered on Mikhail Abramov, who was appointed Chief of Naval Staff under Masirov at the time.  However, Putin appointed the current chief of the Northern Fleet, Vice-Admiral Vladimir Visotskiy (who was posted to the Northern Fleet in Sept 05 as well) as Masorin’s replacement instead.  Visotskiy, at age 52 and barring a succession of difficulties that plagued Kuroedov, would provide a degree of long term stability and oversight to a service on the rebound as well as  better operational credentials than Abramov (to include servng as CO of the Minsk).