Russia has no plans to pull out from its naval base in Sevastopol, Ukraine, but will build facilities for the Black Sea Fleet in Novorossiisk, news agencies quoted the chief of Russia's General Staff as saying on Tuesday.
"We have not set ourselves the goal of leaving Sevastopol," the RIA Novosti quoted Nikolai Makarov as saying.
"We also plan to build Black Sea fleet facilities near (Russianport) Novorossiisk," he added.
The current lease of the Sevastopol naval base in the Crimea will expire in 2017, but Moscow has intended to extend the agreement.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the missile cruiser Moskva in Novorossiisk on Tuesday, during which he was briefed that the future main base at Novorossiisk will be fully in servicefrom 2020.
Head of the Federal Agency for Special Construction, Nikolai Abroskin, said on Tuesday that the three-phase construction program is totally worth about 92 billion rubles (around 2.85 billion U.S. dollars), said the Interfax.
Meanwhile Makarov also said in Novorossiisk that Russia has test-launched a second Sineva ballistic missile from a submarine, following a Monday launch from Russia's Northern Fleet.
(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2009)
