By Igor Kudrik
1997-07-16
In the middle of July the Russian government promised to cover all its salary debts to the army by September this year, allocating 800 million USD for this purpose. The announcement came after a parliamentary hearing on the problems within the armed forces in the beginning of July.
The governmental announcement has direct bearing on the problems of the Northern Fleet, as they were described at a meeting in Murmansk in the end of June. This meeting was organised by the Murmansk county administration to deal with the the problems of the Northern Fleet and other military units on the Kola Peninsula; problems affecting more than 200,000 people.
The main outcome of the Murmansk meeting was the adoption of official appeals to the President, Government and Defence Minister, prompted by the then upcoming parliamentary hearing in Moscow. The leadership of the Murmansk county administration attended the hearing.
Catastrophic sosial conditions in the
Northern Fleet
The latest data on the economical situation in the Northern Fleet
was submitted at the Murmansk meeting. It was said that the state
debt to the Northern Fleet has reached some 300 million USD. The
Naval Repair yards have no orders from the government; this is in
particular the case for Nerpa yard, where operations have come
almost to a stand-still, running at 6% of its industrial
capasity.
The administration's suggestion was to change the status of the yards; from being military subjects to being subjects of the civilian Ministry of Economy. In the meantime some of the yards - in particular Sevmorput Naval Repair Yard, located at the outskirts of Murmansk - seriously consider closing down.
The commander-in-chief of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Erofeev, described the social situation established in the Northern Fleet as "critical" and "catastrophic". Just before the meeting there was a spontaneous gathering in the streets of Zaozersk (Zapadnaya Litsa), organised by submarine officers who had not received salaries since February this year. The admiral stressed once again that the nuclear-powered submarines pulled out of operation - by now the number has reached some 90 units - is a financial burden for the Northern Fleet, which has had to allocate some 4000 sailors to keep them afloat.
Finally, Erofeev mentioned the ship repair problem as an acute one; claiming that none of the 236 million USD allocated in the budget for the purpose arrived at the Northern Fleet.