Indian Defence Review

The quote of the British adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh in 1829 “For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade, whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself”, is as relevant in 2022 as it was then.

No one understands it better than Russia who has the third largest Navy in the world after USA and China. Though Russia has a large coastline of 24,140 kilometres on its northern borders along the Arctic Ocean and waters above the Arctic Circle, stretching from the Barents Sea in the west to the Sea of Okhotsk in the Far East. The problem is that Arctic Ocean freezesallowing shipping only for three months in summer.

Black Sea is important to Russia because of two reasons. One it offers a link to the Mediterranean Sea and onwards to the Atlantic Ocean which permits shipping all around the year and the other reason being that since the Sea of Azov has shallow waters and is smaller in size compared to the Black Sea which has greater depth and is much bigger in size, hence Black Sea is well suited for large size merchant navy ships and naval frigates. Thus, Black Sea has immense economic and military value to Russia.

Historically the Black Sea has been always a busy waterway in the ancient world with the Balkans to its west, Central Asia in the east, the European Steppes in the north, Mesopotamia in the south and Greece in the southeast.

Greece controlled the Black Sea in 9thcentury BC and by 500 BC Greek communities were all around the Black Sea. This helped them increase their trade. Slowly these settlements began to develop their own culture.

In 1479 the Black Sea came under the control of the Ottoman Empire till it was taken over by the Russian Navy in 1783. The Ottoman Empire rapidly declined while the regional power struggle for the control of Black Sea continued. The 1853-1856 Crimean War saw immense bloodshed. France and Britain sided with the Ottomans to check the growing power of Russia. In spite of best-efforts Russia never got the control of the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles Strait from the Ottomans.

One of Russia’s main reasons of joining the World War I was to take over the control of these two straits, which yet again did not materialise as the Germans sided with the Ottomans.

Both the Russian and the Ottoman Empires collapsed after World War I. The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on 29 October 1923 after the abolition of the Sultanate on 01 November 1922.

The Montreux Convention of 1936 established the Turkish control over both the straits. World War II saw increased tensions between the Soviet Union and Turkey as the Soviets wanted to be equal partners with Turkey in controlling these two straits. This yet again did not materialise and further resulted in Turkey and Greece becoming members of NATO in 1952.

The Warsaw Pact which was headed by USSR was dissolved on 01 July 1991 as a percussor to the breakup of the erstwhile USSR on 26 December 1991. The Warsaw Pact was the answer to the USA led NATO which was founded on 04 April 1949 and for over four decades after the World War II ended in 1945, both USA and USSR were in Cold War with each other with NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries as an effective deterrent towards each other.

With the breakup of USSR and the dissolving of Warsaw Pact in 1991, ideally the NATO should had been dissolved too. But this was not done. And in spite assurances in 1991 by USA and NATO that NATO will not expand further, NATO has expanded four times since 1991 and almost reached the doorstep of Russia with Ukraine tilting heavily towards Russia.

Being the seasoned soldier and the astute politician that Vladimir Putin is, he correctly assessed long back that the day is not far when NATO will be at Russia’s doorstep when Ukraine is made a member of NATO.

The Sea of Azov in Eastern Europe which is connected to the Black Sea and bounded by Ukraine in the northwest and Russia in the southeast is connected to the Black Sea by the narrow Strait of Kerch.The Strait of Kerch before 2014 was controlled by Ukraine which had its state called Crimea on the either side of the Strait of Kerch.

The Black Sea has Ukraine on its north, Russia on its northeast, Georgia in the east, Turkey to the south and Bulgaria and Romania to the west. Out of these 6 nations bounding the Black Sea, three are NATO members – Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.

The Black Sea is connected to the Sea of Marmara by the Bosporus Strait which is further connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the Dardanelles Strait. Both the Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles Strait are controlled by Turkey. Turkey in spite of being in NATO is on friendly terms with Russia. 

The Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar which lies in the territorial waters of Morocco, Spain and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. Russia has friendly terms with Morocco and Spain too.

Now in this entire chain of the sea route from the Sea of Azov to the Atlantic Ocean the only link which was fermenting trouble for Russia was the Ukraine controlled Straitof Kerch.

In 2014 realising that NATO will not give up without militarising Ukraine and that Russia’s security will be threatened gravely, Russia annexed Crimea on 18 March 2014 and declared Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol as the 84th and the 85th federal subjects of Russia. The United Nations resolution of March 2014 still considers Crimea as part of Ukraine. Thus, Russia secured the sea route from the Sea of Azov to the Atlantic Ocean.

Russia being the world’s largest exporter of food grains and the second largest exporter of crude oil now has free access to the entire world as the merchant navy can cargo the goods without any interference. The merchant navy of Russia is the 28th biggest merchant navy of the world and hence is heavily dependant on the merchant naval ships of the other countries for transport of cargo to and from Russia.

The importance of Black Sea for Russia is priceless.