The Black Sea Fleet seems to be going to have problems with parade again. This time the event is fixed for the last Sunday of July when the Day of Russian Naval Forces is celebrated traditionally. On Tuesday the head of press office of Ukrainian foreign ministry Vasily Kirilich stated that the parade must be arranged with the country’s management three months before the venue. And that has not been done yet. So the event opportunity is in doubt. 

The Black Sea Fleet is going to ignore the foreign office’s statement again. The militaries explain that the agreement about naval bases does not imply any additional arrangements to be done. Nonetheless, just to be on the safe side, the scenario of the event is usually shown to the Sevastopol city’s authorities.  

Just like it was about the scandalous parade of 11th May, held on the occasion of 225th anniversary of the Russian Fleet, the Russian foreign ministry sent a note to Kiev one month before. The Ukrainian diplomats, unlike their defense ministry, resisted till the end. Different agencies in Sevastopol also behaved in a mixed way. The elected by population city hall arranged the scenario quickly with the Fleet, while the appointed by the president city’s administration was against.     

A source in the commanding staff of the Black Sea Fleet believes that such is revenge by official Kiev for NATO summit in Bucharest where due to position by Vladimir Putin Ukraine failed to join the Action Plan for getting membership in the alliance. The Black Sea Fleet found itself to be left holding the baby. Two weeks after the summit, during the talks in Moscow, Vladimir Ogryzko, the Ukrainian foreign minister suggested that Russia sign a memorandum about the plan for withdrawal Russian troops from Crimea. The offer was rejected indignantly.    

On the other hand, Russia also uses the Sevastopol card in its struggle against probable joining NATO by Ukraine. This is why the minor jubilee of the Back Sea Fleet was celebrated so pompously this year. Besides, it’s been for the first time in more than ten recent years that the Russian foreign office supported openly Yuri Luzhkov in his doubts concerning legitimacy of belonging Sevastopol to Ukraine. 

Political scientist Vitaly Kulik believes that Russia has learnt to manipulate official Kiev provoking it to such unwise steps like announcing Yuri Luzhkov to be persona non grata. It seems Mr. Kulik just cajoled Moscow, as Russia made similar unwise action not allowing the Ukrainian deputy Vladislav Kaskiv in the country, without any explanations made. It was only possible to learn from the diplomatic sources that Mr. Kaskiv is blamed for proposed by him bill about withdrawal of the Black Sea Fleet ahead of time.