Putin's Demotion of Top Russian Naval Commander Raises Questions

Russian President Vladimir Putin's apparent demotion of the long-time commander of Russia's Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sergei Avakyants, has raised questions.

In an announcement on Thursday, Putin's representative in the country's far east said that Avakyants, 65, had resigned and been appointed the head of a group in charge of military sports training and patriotic education.

The news came a week after Russia decided to conduct missile launches and torpedo tests as part of a "surprise inspection" of its Pacific Fleet.

Avakyants had held the position as commander of the Pacific Fleet since 2012. The Russian Pacific Fleet said Thursday that Avankyants is changing position due to his reaching the Russian Ministry of Defense's age limit for military service (65 years).

However, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, assessed that the admiral was "demoted" by the Kremlin amid the defense ministry's ongoing surprise readiness check.

Avakyants' new position as heading the new centers for military sports training and patriotic education is "a clear demotion for one of the senior-most commanding officers in the Russian Navy," the think tank said.

According to state-run news agency Tass, pilot centers are being set up in 12 regions: Buryatia, Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, Kalmykia, Tatarstan, Chechen Republic, Khabarovsk Territory, Belgorod, Kemerovo, Pskov, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen regions and the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

The centers are scheduled to open in May and at least 9,000 people are expected to attend throughout the year. The centers will train and educate those aged between 14 and 35, including schoolchildren and students.

"It is unclear why a Kremlin official initially announced Avakyants' reappointment instead of the Ministry of Defense," the ISW said.

Tass has cited sources who have claimed that Avakyants' demotion was not due to his old age.

"Several Russian general officers—including current Russian theater commander in Ukraine and Chief of the General Staff Army General Valery Gerasimov and Commander-in-chief of the Ground Forces Oleg Salyukov—have served in the Russian armed forces beyond turning 65," ISW said.

"The Kremlin clearly demoted Avakyants from a senior operational commander to a military bureaucrat overseeing programmatic work, despite Russian officials' framing of the shift as a new 'appointment,'" the ISW assessed.

According to the think tank, Avakyants' demotion may be connected to the poor performance of Pacific Fleet naval infantry (such as the 155th and 40th naval infantry brigades) around Vuhledar since early this year. Russia failed to capture the coal-mining city of Vuhledar in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region after a three-week-long battle earlier this year.

"Avakyants alternatively may have failed in some manner to conduct large-scale drills in the Pacific," the ISW said.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced the surprise drills on state television on April 14, saying that the objective of the measure "is to increase the ability of the Armed Forces to repel the aggression of a probable enemy from the direction of ocean and sea."

Tass cited an unnamed source on Friday as saying that Admiral Viktor Liina, who served as Commander of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy, has now been appointed Commander of the Pacific Fleet.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry by email for comment.

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