Putin approves big revamp of Russia’s navy, Kremlin aide says

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a new naval strategy which aims to fully restore Russia’s position as one of the world’s leading maritime powers, Kremlin aide Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview published on Monday.

Russia has the world’s third most powerful navy after China and the United States, according to most public rankings, though the navy has suffered a series of high-profile losses in the Ukraine war.

Patrushev, a former KGB officer who served with Putin in the northern Russian city of St Petersburg during Soviet times, said the new naval strategy – entitled “The Strategy for the Development of the Russian Navy up to 2050” – had been approved by Putin in late May.

“Russia’s position as one of the world’s greatest maritime powers is gradually recovering,” Patrushev told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper in an interview.

“It is impossible to carry out such work without a long—term vision of the scenarios for the development of the situation in the oceans, the evolution of challenges and threats, and, of course, without defining the goals and objectives facing the Russian Navy,” Patrushev said.

Patrushev gave no further details about the strategy, though Russia has ramped up spending on defence and security to Cold War levels as a percentage of gross domestic product.

A U.S. Department of Defence report said in 2021 that China had the largest navy in the world and that Beijing’s overall battleforce is expected to grow to 460 ships by 2030.

Open source data suggests Russia has 79 submarines, including 14 nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines, as well as 222 warships. It’s main fleet is the Northern Fleet headquartered in Severomorsk on the Barents Sea.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Lidia Kelly/Guy Faulconbridge)