Romania Removes Top General From Key Post~~said the US to have military bases near the Black Sea,

Las Vegas Sun ^ | May 28, 2005 at 21:23:50 PDT | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romania's defense minister has removed a top general from a key post for telling reporters that the United States would set up military bases near the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry said Saturday.

Brigade Gen. Valeriu Nicut lost his job as head of the military's strategic planning department after saying at an international conference in Bucharest on Wednesday that the U.S. would take over the Kogalniceanu air base near Constanta and have access to a nearby port.

Romania, an ally that has joined the U.S. in Iraq, has been in talks with Washington over hosting U.S. military bases and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited the Kogalniceanu base last year.

On Saturday, Romanian Defense Minister Teodor Atanasiu said he had removed Nicut from his position because the officer "made unauthorized statements to the media and because we've reached no agreement with the United States." Nicut remains in the military and will be given other responsibilities, the ministry said.

Atanasiu said earlier this month the two countries were negotiating financing for the bases and determining each side's obligations.

As many as 3,500 U.S. troops were stationed here from February to March 2003 as the United States prepared to invade Iraq. The U.S. Air Force has also used Romania as a transport hub for operations in Afghanistan, although no U.S. troops are currently based in the country.

The possible new bases in Romania and Bulgaria are part of the Pentagon's plan to restructure its military presence abroad.

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[struwwelpeter]

Right across the puddle from Sevastopol.

Chess, anyone?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

been looking for a map.

[ProudVet77]

Thanks for the map.
Bush is making sure that a democrap president can't roll us back to the cold war borders. Once we have the bases, it will take a major deal to move them. Good for him.
Actually if you look closely at W and his team, they have done everything they can to move our country a certain way. And in doing this, it nullifies any potential democrap president.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good.

Another map:

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This link for the above map might be useful:

Interactive map for central and eastern Europe.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Finally , a decent Black Sea map.

[struwwelpeter]

Sevastopol.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Black Sea

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Almost one third of the entire land are of continental Europe drains into the Black Sea. It is an area which includes major parts of seventeen countries, thirteen capital cities and some 160 million persons. The second, third and fourth major European rivers, the Danube, Dnieper and Don, discharge into this sea, but its only connection to the world's oceans is the narrow Bosphorus Channel. The Bosphorus is as little as 70 metres deep and 700 metres wide but the depth of the Black Sea itself, exceeds two kilometres in places.

The large natural river supply of phosphorus and nitrogen, essential nutrients for marine plants and algae, has always made the Black Sea very fertile. The tiny floating marine plants known as phytoplankton which form the base of the marine food chain are either eaten or die and gradually fall to deeper waters where bacteria take care of decomposing them, almost completely. Replenishment of the bottom waters of sea with new seawater from the Mediterranean takes hundreds of years. The bacteria in the bottom waters quickly consume all the oxygen and the sea is virtually dead below a depth of about 180 metres. The Black Sea is the biggest natural anoxic basin in the world. Despite this situation, for millennia, its surface waters supported a rich and diverse marine life. Its coastal inhabitants prospered from the abundant fisheries and, more recently, from the millions of tourists who flocked from all over eastern and central Europe to bathe in its warm waters and enjoy the beauty of its shorelines, plains and mountains.

[ProudVet77]

Who's the young lady? And is she single?

[struwwelpeter]

2 kms deep? No wonder this old tub looks tired.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the photos....I know very little about that part of the world....the Black Sea looks a lot bigger than I thought.

[endthematrix]

Russia will be pissed! This US move IMO, is to protect the Crimean, which Russia really wants territorial control. I thought it would boil over a short while back. I don't know the current situation with the election and all.

[endthematrix]

Russia has already had Crimean control:

"Stationed in the port city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula since the early 19th century, the Black Sea Fleet’s continued presence on Ukrainian territory falls under a 1997 agreement that will expire only in 2017. Top Ukrainian officials, including President Yushchenko, have complained numerous times in recent weeks that Russia has refused to honor key points of the deal, including allowing Ukrainian inspectors to enter the grounds of the Sevastopol naval base to check on the technical state of the berths. In March, a more visible violation occurred when a Russian naval landing force conducted a large-scale military exercise, entered Ukrainian waters, and seized a beachhead without notifying Ukraine or asking for permission." link

[struwwelpeter]

Crimea used to be Russian until Khrushchev (that Khokhol) re-drew the Ukrainian SSR's borders. Half the Black Sea fleet ended up Ukrainian, and Nikolaev is now Mikolaiev but still builds some of Russia's biggests surface vessels.

It's obvious why Putin had such a keen interest in last year's elections there. And why nearby US bases make them nervous.

[endthematrix]

Turkish-American Team Begins Work in Support of NATO Exercise in Romania