Main naval parade in Kronstadt canceled

The Barents Observer this weekend reported about the three Northern Fleet warships aborting their voyage and sailing out of the Baltic Sea.

The nuclear-powered submarine Tambov, the destroyer Admiral Levchenko and the landing vessel Ivan Gren were all supposed to line up on display at the Main naval parade in Kronstadt.

Steaming north, the vessels are already outside Norway on return to their bases on the coast of the Kola Peninsula.

Russia has now made the cancellation of main event official. The city administration of Kronstadt, the small island outside St. Petersburg where Vladimir Putin together with the Navy Commanders use to oversee the big warships, got a short SMS message:

“I inform you that there will be no naval parade in Kronstadt. The rest of the festive events will take place according to the plan,” the text said according to Novye Izvestia.

The newspaper reports that only 12 smaller vessels will take part in the event, to be anchored in- and at the berths along the Neva River in the centre of St. Petersburg. 

The big warship parade in Kronstadt has been arranged annually since 2017, the year Putin by Decree reestablished the pre-1980 Navy Day as an official holiday. Celebrations take place the last Sunday in July, this year on the 28th. 

Every year since 2017, except last, one or two nuclear-powered submarines from the Northern Fleet have sailed south to participate. For 2024, state information agency TASS said the two submarines Tambov and Kazan would be present. 

The Tambov has left and there are no reports about Kazan sailing into the Baltic Sea. Rather opposite, the Northern Fleet navy tug that has followed the Kazan across the Atlantic after a historic visit to Cuba last month, the Nikolay Chiker, was earlier this week operating outside Ålesund in the Norwegian Sea. 

The Northern Fleet tug and supply vessel Nikolay Chiker was on July 17 at the same position outside Ålesund, Norway, for hours. Its mission there is unkown to the public. Sceenshot from MarineTraffic.com

The Kazan is not necessarily in the vicinity of the navy tug. In the last week of June, the US ballistic missile submarine USS Tennessee made a surprise surfacing in the waters south of where Nikolay Chiker now operates.

Flexing with a heavy nuclear-weapons armed ballistic missile submarine outside the coast of Norway is a clear military signalling to Russia in a time when the leadership in Kremlin frequently threatens Europe with nuclear strikes. 

For the Russian Northern Fleet’s attack- and multipurpose submarines, like the Tambov and Kazan, keeping track of US and other NATO submarines in the Norwegian Sea is a priority that likely outclass a naval parade in St. Petersburg.

Especially in times of tensions. 

Former Commander-on-Bridge of the destroyer Admiral Levchenko, Rear Admiral Yuri Krysov, says to St. Petersburg newspaper Fontanka that it is logical not not put warships on display in Kronstadt “for security reasons and in the light of the raging geopolitical situation.”

The Rear Admiral points to Germany now having long-range missiles.

The Kazan (K-561) multi-purpose submarine is heavy-armed with torpedoes and cruise missiles. Photo: Sevmash

While no larger warships from Russia’s Northern Fleet will be in St. Petersburg, the Novye Izvestia reports that China will have warships on the Neva river.

Participation of Vladimir Putin is not confirmed, but both Russia’s new defense minister Andrei Belousov and Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Aleksandr Moiseev will be present.

In Severomorsk, the headquarters of the Northern Fleet, a big TV will be set up, said to screen Putin’s speech.

Severomorsk, north of Murmansk, is the main base of the Northern Fleet. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

The naval parade in Severomorsk will go as planned. So will the one in Kaliningrad and Vladivostok.

In Sevastopol and Novorossiysk, the bases of the Black Sea fleet, no ceremonial events will take place.

The last Russian patrol ship had left occupied Crime on July 15, the Kyiv Independent reported. About 30% of Russia’s Black Sea fleet is lost or disabled as a consequence of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The remaining is for the most located to Novorossiysk.