Russian navy to start sorties in Atlantic: Tass

Russian warships open fire during a presentation during Navy Day celebrations off the coast of the far eastern city of Vladivostok July 29, 2007. Russia's navy will start sorties in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean as part of a drive to boost Russia's military presence on the world's oceans, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Wednesday. (Yuri Maltsev/Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's navy said on Wednesday it would start sorties in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, the latest move by an increasingly assertive Moscow to demonstrate its military might.

"The aim of the sorties is to ensure a naval presence in tactically important regions of the world ocean," Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told President Vladimir Putin, according to a transcript of the meeting supplied by the Kremlin.

Buoyed by huge oil revenues, Russia under Putin has been boosting military spending while at the same time using diplomacy to broaden Moscow's influence.

Earlier this year Putin announced that long-range strategic bombers would resume patrols around the world and Russia's long-range nuclear forces have test-fired new missiles.

But analysts say the navy, once the focus of national pride and symbol of the Soviet Union's military might, is still reeling from more than a decade of under-funding.

A series of accidents -- such as the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine in 2000 -- have hammered the Russian navy's reputation at home and abroad.

Serdyukov said Russia's Black Sea fleet would monitor the Mediterranean while the Northern Fleet would make a sorties into the Atlantic.

Russia has long been talking about reviving a permanent naval base in the Mediterranean. During the Cold War, the Soviet navy had a permanent presence on the Mediterranean, using the Syrian port of Tartus as a supply point.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Keith Weir)

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