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Lethal sub, now in Navy

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu communicates the takeover of the "Yuri Dolgoruky" with President Putin. Photo: mil.ru

“Comrade Commander-in-Chief, the St Andrew ensign has been raised on the cruiser”, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a direct video-link from the “Yuri Dolgorukii”. See pictures from the event.

Location

“The ship has been commissioned into to the Navy of the Russian Federation. The ship’s deployment has begun”, Shoigu continued.

As previously reported by BarentsObserver, the inclusion of the “Yuri Dolgorukii” in the Northern Fleet marks a shift in Russia’s nuclear forces. The number of nuclear warheads based on submarines will no longer go down, it starts to rise again.

Putin, himself located at the nuclear-power cruiser “Pyotr Veliky” off the coast of the Kola Peninsula said that the vessels of the Borey-class will become “a critical element of the naval component of Russia’s strategic forces, a guarantee of global balance and the security of Russia and its allies”, a transcript reads.

In a ceremony in Severomorsk, the President also emphasized that “the development of strong and effective Navy is one of Russia’s key priorities” and that the country in the coming years will receive “over one hundred new surface ships and submarines of different classes”.

According to Navy Commander Viktor Chirkov, the “Yury Dolgoruky” will now begin performing L1 tasks followed by L2 tasks, as well as deep-sea testing at a depth of 600 metres and torpedo firing from a great depth.