British Military Diplomats Visited Vladivostok

23.03.2012 Military representatives of British embassy to Russia arrived in Vladivostok paying a familiarization visit. Foreign military diplomats met with Pacific Fleet (PF) Acting Chief of Staff RADM Sergei Rekish in the PF Officers' Club.

The delegation includes British Defense Attaché Brigadier General Carl Scott, Naval Attaché Captain Simon Airey, and Technical Assistant Steve Woods.

Meeting with foreign guests, Sergei Rekish told about history of Russia's Pacific Fleet, its modern structure, basing sites, and current tasks.

Carl Scott emphasized significance of Pacific Fleet's ships deployed off the Horn of Africa and effective contribution of Russian naval mariners to anti-piracy campaign in the Indian Ocean. The parties agreed that the cooperation should be developed in order to improve qualification level of navies attending anti-piracy activities.

The British delegation met with crewmembers of deep-sea bathyscaph AS-28 senior warrant officer Anatoly Popov and civil employee Sergei Belozerov.

Recall that the bathyscaph ran afoul of ropes in Aug 2005 during regular submersion off Kamchatka and could not surface by own power. Thanks to international rescue operation, the bathyscaph's crew was released from "underwater captivity". The Royal Navy's rescuers played a pivotal role in the operation. Russian mariners thanked British counterparts for help and asked to give best respects to operators of Scorpio submersible craft for their excellent work during the rescue operation.