The Baltic Fleet, located at the Baltic Sea. is headquartered in Kaliningrad, has a long history, was part of the former Soviet Navy and is now part of Russian Navy.

The breakup of the Soviet Union deprived the Baltic Fleet of key bases in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, leaving Kaliningrad Oblast as the Fleet's only ice-free naval outlet to the Baltic Sea. Also, the Kaliningrad Oblast between Poland and Lithuania was cut off from Russia.

When Russia insisted on maintaining Kaliningrad as a heavily armed garrison, it aroused considerable international criticism, especially from Poland. Königsberg was awarded to the Soviet Union under the Potsdam Accord in 1945, but the Russian Federation holds no legal title to the enclave.

Armed forces comparable in size to the entire Polish army are stationed in Kaliningrad Oblast, which is a Russian enclave completely cut off from the rest of Russia by Poland and Lithuania.

When Russia withdrew all its former Warsaw Pact forces from Poland and the Baltic states during 1992-94, some air, naval, and ground forces were relocated to Kaliningrad, ostensibly because of housing shortages elsewhere in Russia.

Developments in Russia's federal system in recent years have resulted in some areas gaining considerable autonomy, in particular Kaliningrad, where the Jantar Free Economic Zone has been set up.

The other major Baltic Fleet base is at Kronstadt, a satellite-town of St.Petersburg located at the Kotlin island in the Gulf of Finland, some 29 km NW of St. Petersburg.

As of 1996 operational forces included nine submarines, twenty-three principal surface combatants, three cruisers, two destroyers, and eighteen frigates, and approximately sixty-five smaller vessels.

As of mid-2000 the Baltic Fleet included about 100 combat ships of various types, and the Fleet's Sea Aviation Group units were equipped with a total of 112 aircraft.

In 1904, the Fleet was sent over to the Pacific and fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, for example in the Battle of Tsushima and was destroyed on 1905 at the Battle of Tsushima. This historic battle broke Russian strength in East Asia.

Admirals of the Fleet:

• Zinovi Petrovich Rozhdestvenski

Ships and submarines commissioned to the fleet:

• Soviet submarine M-256, a Project 615 short-range attack diesel submarine of the Soviet Navy.

External links

• http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/agency/mf-baltic.htm
• http://www.gwpda.org/naval/ruflt17.htm
• http://www.aeronautics.ru/table21.htm