Swedish expert: Russia is trying to establish control over the Baltic Sea
A Senior Lecturer from the National Defense College, Thomas Ries, told Aftonbladet newspaper that the deployment of two submarines to the naval base in Kaliningrad is part of Russia's strategy to establish control over the Baltic Sea.
Two small missile ships, the Zeleny Dol and the Serpukhov, were added to the Russian Baltic Fleet this week. They were transferred from the Black Sea Fleet.
Ries explained that in the event of a conflict, corvettes equipped with Kalibr missiles will be able to prevent access to the Baltic Sea for foreign warships. According to experts, in deploying these ships to Kaliningrad, Moscow is making its ability clear.
Last winter, the Commander of the U.S. forces in Europe, Ben Hodges, warned that because of Kaliningrad, Russia could prevent the arrival of NATO military forces to the Baltic States.
The Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol are the fourth and the fifth ships of project 21631, which were transferred to the Black Sea Fleet at the end of 2015. The first three ships built under this project are part of the Caspian fleet. All of them were built at the Zelenodolsk Shipbuilding Plant and are able to carry eight Kalibr-NK or Onyx missiles simultaneously.