Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Korolev moves to the United Shipbuilding Company, and is replaced by the Commander of the Northern Fleet Nikolai Evmenov. What caused these permutations - understood RBC

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed the commander of the Northern Fleet, 57-year-old admiral Nikolai Evmenov, commander-in-chief of the Navy. The presidential decree on Wednesday, May 8, was read out by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a conference call.

According to the decree signed on May 3, after that, the Northern Fleet will be headed by Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev, Commander of the Black Sea Fleet; The Black Sea Fleet will be headed by Vice-Admiral, Deputy Chief of the General Staff Igor Osipov, who commanded the Caspian Flotilla in 2015-2016.

Former naval commander-in-chief 64-year-old Vladimir Korolev completed military service and goes to work for the United Shipbuilding Company (USC), Russia's largest company in the industry, announced Shoigu. After graduating in 1977, the Higher Naval School of. Frunze, Korolev spent more than 45 years in military service. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Navy in April 2016, before that, as well as Evmenov, headed the Northern Fleet.

What will change the new commander of the Navy

The decision on the appointment of Evmenov as commander-in-chief of the Navy and the departure of Korolev to the USC has been discussed for the past few months, says expert of the Russian International Affairs Council, specialist in the Navy, Ilya Kramnik. The reason for the resignation of Admiral Korolev was the fact that he was unable to improve the interaction of the fleet with industry, the expert said.

He draws attention to the low rate of commissioning and disruption of the repair of warships. In particular, the repair of the Admiral Chabanenko ship has been greatly delayed; in fact, the submarine modernization program of the Antey project 949A has been disrupted. Industry has heard claims to the fleet about incorrect wordings of technical assignments, the change of which delays construction time, Kramnik says.

“It is assumed that the new commander-in-chief will have to pay close attention to this - especially with regard to the repair of ships, because we have very big problems with this. The repair deadlines are regularly disrupted and it is difficult to say whose fault is greater than the fleet or industry, ”the expert believes.

Viktor Murakhovsky, editor-in-chief of the Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine, in a conversation with RBC called it logical to appoint the commander-in-chief of the Navy to the position of the commander of the Northern Fleet, where the main strategic forces of the Navy are concentrated in the basing points. “Accordingly, for the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, the appointment of the head of the Northern Fleet can also be viewed as an increase and career growth,” says Murakhovsky.

The new commander in chief has three main tasks, Murakhovsky believes. The first is to streamline the system of projects and orders for the industrial construction of ships. Task number two is the deployment of combat duty of carriers of strategic nuclear weapons, including submarines with Zircon cruise missiles and Poseidon unmanned aerial vehicles. Plus, the fastest development and deployment of small projects in a combat system, which were commissioned, but not included in the composition of the Navy, the expert summed up.

What is known Admiral Evmenov

The new commander in chief of the Navy is 57 years old. Evmenov was born in Moscow. He graduated from the Higher Naval School of Diving named after the Lenin Komsomol, Naval Academy. NG Kuznetsova, as well as the Military Academy of the General Staff.

In 1987 he was sent to the Pacific Fleet. On nuclear submarines, he made his way from the commander of the electronavigation group to the commander of the nuclear submarines of the Pacific Fleet. In December 2011, he was appointed commander of the submarine forces of the Pacific Fleet. In September 2012, he became Chief of Staff - First Deputy Commander of the Northern Fleet. From November 2015, he served as Commander of the Northern Fleet, and from April 2016 he was appointed Commander.

He was awarded the Order "For Military Merit", "For Maritime Merit", Alexander Nevsky.

In 2016, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported a video published on YouTube in 2014, which presumably dates back to the time of Evmenov’s service in the Pacific. On the video, secretly filmed by one of the servicemen, Yevmenov’s address to the sailors' ranks, in which the admiral talks about a traffic accident involving a drunken military man, actively using profanity.

"How do you ... still bring that you can't get behind the wheel of a drunk ... You can't eat vodka ... you can't be mad ... What else is needed to keep you alive?" He addresses his subordinates. Later, Evmenov announced the holding of a “month without a mat” in the Northern Fleet, during which lectures and film screenings were held.

Than ex-commander of the Navy may be useful USC

Korolev may become the deputy president of the federal property of the USC, according to RBC sources in the Ministry of Defense. One of them clarified that the former commander-in-chief of the Navy would be responsible for interaction with the Ministry of Defense and other authorities.

The USC said that "the experience and knowledge of Vladimir Ivanovich will certainly be in demand in the corporation." At the same time, “now it’s premature to speak about a specific position,” the spokesman added.

This rotation is quite profitable for the USC, says Vladimir Gutenev, head of the State Duma commission for the legal support of the development of defense industry organizations. "We see that there is a systematic nomination to command positions of people with experience in leading various submarine forces," he explained. The closer the link between the customer of the state defense order and the contractor, the more sophisticated products will go to the troops, he added.

“Now there are tasks not only to modernize the existing fleet, but also to import substitution. Due to the pressure of sanctions, a number of contracts for the supply of gas turbine engines for vessels of various classes, including civilian, have not been executed by our partners, ”says Gutenev.

Kramnik doubts that the transfer of the ex-commander-in-chief of the Navy to the USC will solve problems with the repair of ships. “It may be assumed that, having received some authority in the USC, Korolev will be able to achieve a better result. But, given that the USC as the parent organization now has very little authority over the enterprises within its structure, such a prospect is very doubtful, ”the expert warns.

The chairman of the board of directors of USC in October 2018 was the former governor of St. Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko. At the same time, in an interview with RBC, USC President Alexei Rakhmanov spoke about Poltavchenko’s intention to bring the corporation to the same level as Gazprom and Rosneft.