Special to WorldTribune.com

MOSCOW — The Russian Navy plans to send a task force to the eastern Mediterranean that would outnumber the U.S. presence in the region.
The Russian Navy said it would deploy 10 warships in the eastern Mediterranean near Syria. Officials said seven surface vessels were already in the region. “The tasks are very clear: to avoid the slightest threat to the borders and national security,” Russian Navy commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said.

In a briefing on Sept. 13, Chirkov identified the three ships that were being sent near the Syrian coast. They are the Moskva guided-missile cruiser, the Smetlivy destroyer and the Nikolai Filchenkov assault ship.

“This is the practice of all navies of the world — to be located where the level of tension is increasing,” Chirkov said.

“They [ships] are all acting according to the operational command plan of the offshore maritime zone.”

The Russian plan would deploy a naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean that was more than double that of the U.S. Navy. By mid-September, the U.S. Navy’s European Command, hampered by budget restrictions, sent four warships near Syria.

The Russian announcement came hours before Moscow and Washington reached agreement on the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. That agreement suspended U.S. plans for an imminent air strike on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Russian presence was part of a Kremlin plan to deploy a permanent task force in the eastern Mediterranean. Officials said the Russian Navy
began its buildup in 2012, and in May 2013 the warships came under a single task force.

Officials said Moskva was scheduled to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean on Sept. 16. They said some of the ships could receive
supplies from the Syrian port of Tartous, the only Russian Navy facility
abroad.

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