To return to the main
Northern Fleet entry, see the Northern Fleet
file.
The closed city of Severomorsk is located about 25km north of Murmansk.
Together with its subordinated towns of Roslyakovo, Safonovo, Safonovo-1,
Severomorsk-3, and Shchukozero, Severomorsk
has an urban population of approximately 74,000.[1,3] The Northern
Fleet considers the Severomorsk Naval Base its main administrative base.
Also located in the Severomorsk region is the Safonovo Ship Repair Facility
(SRZ-82) and a large missile storage facility in Shchukozero. Missiles
with nuclear warheads are reportedly stored at Shchukozero, which is eight
kilometers east of Severomorsk.[2]
Safonovo, four miles (6km) southwest of Severomorsk
Ministry of Defense
With a large number of floating docks, Safonovo services nuclear submarines
and surface vessels. The facility is large enough to repair Typhoon-class
submarines.[1] Germany sold one of Safonov's two dry docks to Russia in
the 1970s, and the other dry dock, the largest on the Kola Peninsula with
an 80,000-ton loading capacity, came from Sweden in 1980. Safonovo
also has many shore-based workshops.[2] In March 1998, the Bellona
Foundation reported that plans to merge Safonovo with Sevmorput
exist, despite the fact that Safonovo had received orders for military
ship repairs and for the dry dock overhaul of a nuclear-powered surface
ship.[3]
3/5/2003:
PSKOV NUCLEAR SUBMARINE DAMAGED IN FIRE
A fire broke out on the afternoon of 5 March 2003 at the Safonovo ship
repair facility, damaging the outer hydroacoustic rubber
layer of the Sierra I-class attack submarine K-336, or Pskov.[1,2,3,4] It took 90 minutes and several fire crews to extinguish the
blaze, which had spread over scaffolding to the docked submarine but did not
penetrate inside the ship.
No one was injured and radiation registered normal background levels.[1,2,3]
The cause of the fire was not established, although one account blamed
"carelessness during welding work."[4] A
special commission has been established to investigate the incident.[1]
10/21/2002: SEVEROMORSK MAY
LOSE HEAT AND HOT WATER
On 21 October 2002, MurmanNews.Ru
reported that Severomorsk naval base
might have its heat shut off. In order to save fuel, the city administration
ordered the temperature in apartment buildings lowered. Severomorsk Mayor Vitaliy Voloshin
was unable to answer a question regarding how much
fuel was left in the city heat and power station. However, he said that the city expects a new
shipment of fuel soon. According to city authorities, the heating crisis was
caused by "monopolist" power producers who had raised prices for oil from 2,000 to
4,000 rubles (from about $63 to $126 as of 21 October 2002) per ton. As a result, the main Northern Fleet base might be left
without heat and hot water. A similar situation occurred in the early 1990s when
the entire Severomorsk region was almost "frozen out" due to fuel shortages
at the city heat and power station.
5/21/2002: DEFENSE
MINISTRY STARTS PAYING ITS DEBTS TO SHIPBUILDERS FOR WORK ON KURSK
On 21 May 2002, Murmansk Oblast
Governor Yuriy Yevdokimov announced that the Russian Defense Ministry had
started to pay its debts to the Safonovo Ship Repair Facility for work on the
Kursk submarine. Current debts to Safonovo amount to 150 million rubles (almost $4.8 million
as of 21 May 2002). The ministry transferred to the Safonovo and
Nerpa shipyards a total of 110 million rubles (over
$3.5 million as of 21 May 2002). On 1 January 2002, the military suspended
financing of work on the Kursk in Safonovo, forcing the
shipyard to take a 19% interest loan from St.
Petersburg's Promstroybank in order to
pay its workers. The shipyard's Floating Dock-50, where work on the Kursk
was conducted, was offered to the bank as collateral. If the Defense
Ministry pays off its debts in a timely and complete manner, the shipyard will
be able to pay for the bank loan and preserve the dock.
4/26/2002: DEFENSE MINISTRY NOT PAYING DEBTS FOR WORK ON KURSK
On 26 April 2002, Interfax reported that according to the
Murmansk Oblast legislative assembly, the
Russian Ministry of Defense still owes the shipyard in Roslyakovo about 150 million rubles (about
$4.8 million as of 26 April 2002) for clean-up work done on the Kursk.
12/16/99: STRIKING WORKERS
BLOCK ROADWAY CONNECTING MURMANSK AND SEVEROMORSK, DEMAND PAYMENT OF WAGES
Safonovo workers, demanding wages that have not been
paid in four months, went on strike and blocked the road connecting Murmansk
and Severomorsk. Bellona reported that the debt owed to the shipyard
by the Ministry of Defense
(MOD) is approximately $600,000.[1] However, the Russian television
station NTV reported that the MOD and the Federal
Border Guard Service together owed the plant 12 million rubles (approximately
$448,000 as of 16 December 1999).[2] Striking workers have blocked the
road before in protest of working and living conditions at Safonovo.
Severomorsk
Although Severomorsk serves as the Northern Fleet's main administrative
base, no nuclear submarines are based at Severomorsk. It serves two Kirov-class
nuclear-powered battle cruisers, the Admiral Ushakov and Admiral
Nakhimov.
9/24/2002: SEVEROMORSK 2003
BUDGET: SUBSIDIES REDUCED, LOCAL FUNDS INCREASED
On 24 September 2002, Severomorsk
Mayor Vitaliy Voloshin
announced at a press conference that the 2003 budget had been approved by the Ministry of Finance in June.[2]
According to Voloshin,
the closed cities expect the State Duma to adopt a budget increasing funding by
33%, to 1.685 billion rubles (about $53.2 million as of 27 September 2002). The 2002 budget was 1.268
billion rubles (about $40 million).[2] The 2003 budget will differ from the 2002 budget in the following
ways: government grants will be reduced, and
local revenues increased. Last year, federal subsidies amounted to 85% of the
budget, local revenues - to 15%. This ratio will be different in 2003. These changes are the result
of the reduction of central subsidies, cancellation of benefits to
servicemen, and the increase of military salaries. Military salaries will now be
subject to income tax, which will go to the local budget. Rent and public utilities
fees will be increased as well. In the 2003 budget, subsidies for capital construction,
resettlement, and purchase of equipment were doubled.
8/20/2001: RADIATION LEVELS TO BE SHOWN ON PUBLIC
DISPLAY BOARD IN ROSLYAKOVO
On 20 August 2001, a radiation level display board
will be installed on a public building in Roslyakovo. The board will present
information about radiation levels at a floating dock of the Roslyakovo Ship
Repair Facility (PD-50), where the Kursk nuclear submarine will be delivered
after being raised from the bottom of the Barents Sea. Radiation levels
throughout the Severomorsk ZATO will monitored by three sensors: one mobile and two stationary. One of the stationary sensors is already
installed in Severomorsk and another one will be installed at Nikitin Cape
on the Kola Fjord. Information from these sensors will be available to the
general public at the city administration building.
11/11/2000: NORTHERN FLEET IN DEBT FOR HEAT
According to the Severomorsk city administration, the Northern
Fleet owes the city 60 million rubles (over $2.1 million as of 11 November
2000) for heat.
10/12/2000: STATE OWES NORTHERN FLEET $13 MILLION
According to the Murmansk Oblast administration press office, as of 12 October 2000
federal authorities owed the Northern Fleet 359 million rubles (almost
$13 million as of 12 October 2000). Almost half of that debt, 180 million
rubles (almost $6.5 million as of 12 October 2000), has been owed since 1999. The rest of the debt consists of unpaid salaries to the
fleet's military staff and civilian enterprises. At the same time, the Northern
Fleet owes the city of Severomorsk 60 million rubles (over $2.1 million as of
15 November
2000) for heat alone (see the 11/11/2000 entry
in this section).
6/2000: FUEL THEFT IN SEVEROMORSK INVOLVES OFFICERS
In late June 2000 the Severomorsk military court
convicted seven men of stealing fuel from Northern Fleet ships, including
the commander of an anti-submarine ship; a senior lieutenant from the fleet's
fuel base; the captain and first mate of the tanker Cheremshan;
and Aleksandr Rumyantsev, a civilian electrician who was reportedly involved
in a Murmansk criminal organization that deals in fuel. All seven
men were amnestied; four of them are supposed to pay restitution totaling 1.2 million rubles (about $42,000 as of 27 June 2000). Five others
were convicted in an earlier hearing; only one, Lieutenant Captain Kravchenko
of the destroyer Gremyashchiy, received a sentence including jail
time (three years). The theft of 74MT of diesel fuel from the Marshal
Vasilyevskiy was discovered in 1997, leading investigators to uncover
the theft ring. In total, 15 men were involved in a string of fuel
thefts, including several Severomorsk officers. Three officers were
amnestied during the investigative process because of their prior military
decorations. The thefts were organized by the 36-year-old Rumyantsev.
Through intermediaries, Rumyantsev persuaded mechanics on military ships
to sell him residual fuel that was not accounted for. The Cheremshan,
which unloads liquid waste from military ships, would instead take the
fuel onboard. The Cheremshan then transported the fuel to
Murmansk, where it was sold at cut-rate prices. The investigation
turned up six such episodes in 1997, during which approximately 1,000MT
of fuel was sold for $150,000. In other cases, 16 people, including
nine officers, were convicted for fuel theft in 1999 and 2000; in June
2000 the military prosecutor was concluding its investigation of the theft
of 1,000MT of fuel from the fleet's fuel base itself.
2/2000: ADMIRAL USHAKOV TO BE REPAIRED
AND MODERNIZED, NOT DISMANTLED
In February 2000 the Russian Navy tasked the Severnoye
Design and Construction Bureau (SPKB) with developing a program to repair and
upgrade the Admiral Ushakov nuclear-powered
battle cruiser based at Severomorsk. SPKB General Designer Vladimir
Yukhnin would not divulge the details about the project.
SPKB is capable of outfitting the battle cruiser with Russia's most modern
weapons.[1] On 8 June 1999 the Russian State Duma had set up a fund to collect
donations to fund the repairs, after the Duma put forward
a resolution halting decommissioning of the ship. As of October 1999 only
$400,000 of the required $160 million had been raised, and Bellona reported
that Zvezdochka was unofficially developing plans to dismantle the ship.[2]
6/99: NORTHERN FLEET DECLARES Y2K READINESS DESPITE
LINGERING OBSTACLES
For details, please see the 6/99
entry in the Northern Fleet General Developments
file.
near Severomorsk
Site 49 comprises the Northern Fleet's primary fresh fuel storage facility.
In September 1997, sixteen months after an initial visit by US Department
of Energy officials, construction of a physical protection annex at Site
49 was completed, through the cooperation between the Northern Fleet, Kurchatov
Institute, and Oakridge, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos National
Labs. The program also includes continued work on the facility interior
through early 1998, such as enhanced intrusion detection devices, upgraded
communications, computerized accounting, and fuel assembly seals and barcodes.
Last updated 12 May 2003
Comments or questions? Contact Cristina Chuen at MIIS
CNS: cristina.chuen@miis.edu
This material is produced independently for NTI
by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has
not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers,
employees, agents. Copyright © 2002 by MIIS.
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