Putin Bringing Big Guns to G20 Summit

Russian Federation President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
(Image credit: TASS)

During next week's Group of 20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, Russian President Vladimir Putin will have something in his back pocket - something few other world leaders (if any) will have: his own naval task group.

In September, it was announced that, despite calls to prevent Putin from attending the G20 Leaders' Summit, the Russian president was expected to participate.

On October 23, a Russian Pacific Fleet surface task group departed Vladivostok for "combat service in southern areas of the Pacific Ocean," according to a naval spokesman. The group consists of Slava-class cruiser "Varyag", Udaloy I-class destroyer "Marshal Shaposhnikov", Baklazhan-class salvage and rescue tug "Fotiy Krylov", and Chilikin-class replenishment oiler "Boris Butoma".

While no press reporting to date has indicated exactly where in the south Pacific these ships will operate, leave it to social media to spill the details. In early November, some family members or loved ones of sailors on a couple of the task group's ships specifically indicated Australia as a future operating area. One source concerned about loosing cellphone contact with her loved one wrote, "There are no shorelines anywhere along the way to Sydney!" Another source reported that the ships would travel to Australia first before commencing a return leg towards Vladivostok.

Russian ships traveling to faraway exotic ports to support presidential visits is not unusual. Udaloy II-class destroyer "Admiral Chabanenko" supported President Dmitriy Medvedev's visit to Venezuela in November 2008, and "Varyag" called in San Francisco in June 2010 to support President Medvedev's visit to California. Even closer to home, Slava-class cruiser "Moskva" was in Sochi this August to support meetings between President Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

What makes this deployment strange is that no one in Canberra has mentioned any port calls by the "Varyag" task group. And if there are no scheduled port calls, why is the task group heading in that direction? How exactly does demonstrating the flag off the coast of Australia support Putin's G20 Summit plans?

UPDATE 1: The Curious Case of Alaed

Not much news has been forthcoming regarding the status of Alaed since it arrived in Murmansk last month. Over the past week, however, internet chatter seemed to indicate that Moscow has found a work-around for shipping the weapons and military hardware to Syria using Russian Navy ships.

Laying out all of the internet chatter, it appears that three Northern Fleet landing ships, accompanied by Udaloy II-class destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and a few auxiliary vessels, will depart Severomorsk soon for the Mediterranean Sea and then the Black Sea for participation in the operational-strategic command-staff exercise Kavkaz-2012, which will be held in September.  The Baltic Fleet's Neustrashimyy-class frigates Neustrashimyy and Yaroslav Mudryy, as well as Uda-class oiler Lena, will rendezvous with the Northern Fleet task group  in the Atlantic Ocean as it heads for the Mediterranean Sea (and possibly to the Black Sea).

But the most interesting part of the story is how this relates to Alaed.  According to one source, one or more of the Northern Fleet landing ships will be carrying at least a portion of Alaed's "contraband" to Syria, presumably along the way to the Black Sea.  Indeed, a crewmember of one of the Northern Fleet's landing ships recently confirmed his ship would be heading to Syria soon.  If this scenario plays out as it appears, then there is very little the EU or NATO will be able to do to stop the shipment from reaching Syria.