Defense Intelligence of Ukraine has published an interesting document of russian internal military communication saying the Ministry of Defense of russia had appointed a new commander of the Moskva missile cruiser which had been on the bottom of the Black Sea for six months at that time, hit by two Ukrainian Neptun anti-ship missiles.
More specifically, Ukrainian intelligence obtained an excerpt from the order from the russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu No.1012 marked "For Service Use Only," issued on September 10th, 2022. The order, among other provisions, raises Captain 2nd rank Andrei Savateyev to Captain releases him of the duty commanding the 68th Coastal Defense Ship Brigade, and appoints him to a "vacant position" as the interim commander of the Black Sea Fleet flagship — the Moskva cruiser.
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Now let's delve into the details of this paradoxical story. First, the mentioned 68th Coastal Defense Ship Brigade is a unit belonging to the Black Sea Fleet of the russian Navy. It has a permanent deployment base in Sevastopol, Crimea, and incorporates three Project 1124M anti-submarine warfare corvettes, two Project 266M trawlers, and three standard Project 12700 Aleksandrit trawlers; eight small warships in total.
As the name suggests, the coastal defense ship brigade is responsible for protecting the waters surrounding Sevastopol, the main operating base of the Black Sea Fleet. In other words, quite an important part of the fleet.
Formally speaking, the position of Moskva missile cruiser commander could indeed be vacant since there is no credible information regarding the whereabouts of Anton Kuprin, the actual chief of the flagship. All traces vanished after April 7th, 2022, when the ship sank.
The main paradox here is how one can appoint a new commander for a ship that had been destroyed 7 months ago. A possible explanation for that is purely bureaucratic: Moskva was not dismissed from the lists of equipment in service with the russian Navy. for as long as this stays so, job vacancies and associated financing for the "paper warship," existing in documents only, will be preserved.
What else is there to say, the logic of promoting a military officer followed by his appointment on a sunken ship tells quite a lot about the military culture and the system of penalties and incentives adopted in the russian military tradition.
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