Free Republic

The former commander of the Russian navy's Baltic fleet on Friday denied Swedish media reports that Russia dumped radioactive and chemical waste into Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s. "This is complete nonsense and a clear provocation, propagated at an international level," Admiral Vladimir Yegorov, who commanded the Baltic fleet from 1991 to 2000, told the Interfax news agency. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Thursday called for the previous governments to explain a television report that Russia dumped chemical weapons and radioactive waste off the shores of a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. According...

Plane Crash Mars Naval Celebration A Su-24M bomber crashed yesterday at the main base of the Baltic Fleet in the city of Balstiisk during Naval Fleet Day celebrations attended by Defense Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov. In spite of the emergency, three other bombers did not return immediately to the base, as they were supposed to. One of them was only able to land on the second attempt. The festivities, which Ivanov observed from aboard the flagship destroyer Perservering, included a naval parade and parachute competitions, with an airshow as the finale. Four Su-24M bombers from the...