Editing Pirates of the Baltic Sea (section)

====Navy====

Although Russia has the largest navy of all Baltic Sea states, the Baltic Sea coast, for all its importance, is just a tiny fraction of the Russian coastline, and in practice Buccaneers will only have to worry about the Russian Baltic Fleet, the ships being divided between that and four other fleets in regions too far from the Baltic to be a cause of worry. Then again, the Baltic Fleet is a cause of worry in its very own right.

The Baltic Fleet is subordinate to Russia's Western Military District headquartered in St. Petersburg, which also incorporates Russia's strongest ground and air formations. The Kaliningrad region between Lithuania and Poland serves as the principal base area for the Baltic Fleet and therefore hosts significant land and air forces, both to defend Kaliningrad and to extend Russian shore-based air and sea denial capabilities into the Baltic Sea region.

The flagship of the fleet is an anti-ship and anti-aircraft guided missile destroyer that also has torpedo tubes and four 130 mm naval guns. In addition to the flagship, there are 2 frigates, 16 corvettes, 6 landing ships supported by 6 other landing craft, an attack submarine, 17 minesweepers, 9 missile ships, an anti-saboteur ship and 5 intelligence vessels.

The Baltic Fleet is also supported by extensive air and ground forces, although their role is coastal defense, and except for some of the aircraft they are not a threat to ships in the open sea.

However, while the Baltic Fleet looks impressive on paper, the truth is that not all the ships are operational. The flagship and one of the frigates have been officially “undergoing repairs” for years, and some ships have not left port for a long time. Determining which ships are operational or in refit can be difficult, but the fact is that some ships have little capability, but remain flying an ensign so that crews are entitled to be paid.

Even the operational ships are in many respects badly outdated. It is debatable whether they could face the modern vessels of other Baltic Sea nations. Even the Baltic states, that never had very powerful navies, are now served by advanced Triton mercenary vessels. The truth is that Russia's domestic shipbuilding industry has been in decline as to their capabilities of constructing contemporary hardware efficiently. Some analysts even say that because of this Russia's naval capabilities have been facing a slow but certain "irreversible collapse".
Indeed, the open secret is that Russia has quietly started using Triton for Baltic operations as well. The nation has not decommissioned its own fleet – Russia has always been touchy about prestige – and officially Triton vessels are contracted by various Russian corporations. But the majority of those corporations are owned by the government, so no one is fooled about where the orders come from. While some Baltic Fleet vessels still go out on patrol, only the direct safety of Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg is still under the direct authority of the Baltic Fleet, and open sea patrols are little more than parade, with the ships under strict orders not to engage even the Buccaneers or the Raiders of Thule. Raiders in particular are fond of openly taunting the crews of the Baltic Fleet.

For the Buccaneer crews, this has caused a funny situation where the crews of the Russian Baltic Fleet can be their best pals. The crews, badly paid to begin with, have not taken getting sidelined by the mercenaries well. The Baltic Fleet has a long and proud history. Some people have left and joined the Buccaneers, and those who still serve can be good sources of information and assistance as long as you are friendly and respectful. Buying a few drinks for Russian sailors on shore leave can provide good tips, especially of the sort that can get Triton or the Raiders taken down a notch. And a Russian patrol ship might be willing to perform a “sea rescue” and tow a damaged Buccaneer vessel to Ålandic waters, particularly if the crew gets something for it. If you can get extra friendly with some ship’s crew, they might even “misplace” weapons or gear, or agree to act as cover or distraction. 

Buccaneer wisdom on Russian Baltic Fleet: “Imagine a drunken bear. It may not move much and half the time can’t see where it’s going when it does, but if you laugh at it and it starts heading your way, you will find that it still has claws and teeth and you had better have a bottle of vodka to offer it.”