FSB Raids Shipyards where Russia’s Only Aircraft Carrier Awaits Refitting

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 28 – The embarrassing saga of Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, continues. Not only is it unclear whether that ship will ever go to sea again, but the yards where it is being refitted are so corrupt that the FSB has now raided them in an attempt to root out corruption (severpost.ru/read/118301/).

            That follows both a raid there earlier this year for the same reason (thebarentsobserver.com/ru/bezopasnost/2021/03/direktor-sudoremontnogo-zavoda-obvinyaetsya-v-moshennichestve-pri-remonte) and Moscow’s decision to turn to a Turkish company to build a drydock to replace one that burned earlier (jamestown.org/program/new-turkish-built-dry-dock-will-not-solve-russias-deeper-shipbuilding-problems/).

            The Russian government would like to build a new generation of aircraft carriers, but it is limited both by the enormous price tag for such vessels and by shortcomings in its naval yards, shortcomings that have led to scandals but also called into question Moscow’s ability to build other kinds of ships as well.

            (For background on problems in the yards that have become a bottleneck in this sector, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/05/new-russian-carriers-if-ever-built.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/03/russias-ill-fated-aircraft-carrier.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/01/kremlin-claims-to-contrary-russias-only.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/06/yet-another-proposal-for-dealing-with.html.).

            The Kremlin’s decision to send in the FSB shows how seriously the country’s rulers take this problem, but it also highlights another reality: the problems of corruption and mismanagement in Russian naval yards are so deeply ingrained that one raid is unlikely to change the weather in them.

            And that means that all of Moscow’s announcements about its shipbuilding plans for the Arctic and elsewhere must be taken with more than a grain of salt. The center may be willing and able to spend money, but Russian naval yards are where much of it goes to disappear into the hands of allies of the regime rather than be transformed into new vessels.