Fleets

For those who are not familiar with military history, there are four major divisions of the Russian navy, namely, the Northern Fleet, the Pacific Fleet, the Baltic Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet. The last of this list is of particular importance because it provides the access to the Mediterranean Sea – so that Russia could have military influence on Syria, Jordan, and other countries of the Middle East.

(The Black Sea Fleet was actually first established by the original Russian Empire some 200 years ago for the same purpose. Its major adversary at that time was the Ottoman Empire.)

The problem is, the Black Sea Fleet is mostly based on Crimea of Ukraine.

Before the dissolution of Soviet Union, everything was fine because they were but one country. However, after the Berlin Wall was torn down by Mikhail Gorbachev, Kiev becomes out of the grasp of Moscow. Although the naval facilities at Crimea remains officially under rental to Russia, the condition is never secure – especially when the voice of joining the European Union is growing.

PS. You really need some idea on the geography of the Europe before you could appreciate what’s going on. As always, my advise is to learn playing Diplomacy the board game. You would be surprised to find that neither the place nor the distribution of power change very much in the past 100 years.