Russian ships shadow PM in Baltic

Harper’s photo op on frigate meant ship had to leave NATO exercises

Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have got exactly what he wanted from his trip on HMCS Fredericton when two Russian warships tracked the Canadian frigate, approaching within seven nautical miles (13 kilometres) Wednesday in the Baltic Sea.

“It’s normal and expected for them to be operating in the Baltic Sea,” Cmdr. Jeff Murray, the Fredericton’s captain, emphasized.

But overflights earlier in the week by Russian fighter jets and patrol aircraft underlined the PM’s consistent message during his six-day trip to Europe: Russian President Vladimir Putin is a menace to peace in Europe and elsewhere.

With a half-century-old Sea King helicopter and young sailors as a backdrop, Harper told the Fredericton’s crew, “the Royal Canadian Navy’s presence here is the physical demonstration that Canada stands up for what is right and good in our troubled world and … helps to keep Canada safe.”

The peg for his pre-election photo op with the troops was the frigate’s participation in a major NATO naval and air exercise in the Baltic Sea — although, ironically, to enable the prime minister to celebrate Canada’s role, the Halifax-based frigate had to withdraw temporarily from the war games only two days after they had begun.

The Baltops 15 exercise includes 50 maritime units from 17 NATO and partner nations and is designed to enhance interoperability among the navies.

The waters here became a potential flashpoint when Russia annexed Crimea and had proxies seize eastern Ukraine.

Sweden and Finland, which are not part of NATO, have joined the exercise.

The skies above the Baltic have become more dangerous as well, as Russian warplanes test the mettle of Swedish, Finnish and NATO aircraft. On several occasions last year, Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter jets had to scramble from a base in Lithuania to escort Russian aircraft from NATO airspace.

In a reminder of how close Russia is to NATO territory, to enter the Baltic from the Polish side of Gdansk Bay, the Fredericton had to sail within 50 kilometres of the strategically vital Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. The Kremlin uses its ice-free bay to put warships into the Baltic from what used to be German East Prussia.

While sailing the Baltic for 18 hours, Harper reiterated accusations Putin was responsible for “the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians” on a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane shot down over Ukraine. He also said Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was designed to “divert attention from the long-term decline of Russia.”

The PM’s visit, however, was a figurative walking of the plank to witness first-hand the grim state of the navy after years of neglect.

Canada’s senior service faces critical problems attracting young sailors after many broken promises over the purchase of Arctic offshore patrol vessels, serious safety and technical issues with submarines, and the repeated postponements of plans to replace antiquated destroyers and supply ships that were so unseaworthy they had to be retired, leaving a serious gap in Canada’s maritime defences.

It was probably no accident, then, Harper chose to visit the Fredericton. The 21-year-old warship was the first to have its weapons platforms, radars, electronic warfare and combat management systems upgraded.

The PM toured the frigate’s bridge and modernized war room. He also got to see the warship churn up the ocean with a series of dramatic, motor boatlike turns. However the show was nothing like the spectacular highspeed extravaganza the navy was able to put on in the Arabian Sea when Paul Martin’s government sent four frigates, a destroyer and a supply ship there in support of the United States after the 9/11 attacks.

In fact, the navy is now hardpressed to send more than one warship at a time to the Middle East or northern Europe.

A telling example of the wretched state of the fleet is that the Fredericton is not going to be replaced in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean by a Halifax-based frigate, but by one that has had to come all the way from the West Coast.

HMCS Winnipeg will have to sail south from British Columbia, through the Panama Canal, then across the widest part of the Atlantic. The journey will take more than a month and cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra fuel.

For all that, the approximately 250 sailors aboard the Fredericton were on their best behaviour while Harper and his wife, Laureen, were at sea. And the optics were perfect for their visit, with cloudless skies and unusually calm seas in the notoriously fickle Baltic.

With Roman Catholic voters, and especially those in Quebec in mind, Harper’s six-day European trip concludes Thursday with a visit to Vatican City for an audience with Pope Francis.

The pope, who has also called for peace in Ukraine, met Wednesday with Putin.