MOSCOW, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The operational exercises of the Russian navy in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea just concluded were a performance by the sailors and pilots to be proud of. If only the same could be said for the TV crews.

Television reports waxed lyrical about "the revival of the Russian navy" and were liberally peppered with phrases like "our ships have nearly ousted the 6th U.S. Fleet from the Mediterranean" and "the St. Andrew's Flag is back in the ocean expanses."

Wishful thinking was always the undeclared principle of Soviet party propaganda. And somehow this principle has grown and expanded on Russian television, especially with regard to the army and navy.

It is not very gentlemanly to compare our only, gas-turbine propelled, aircraft carrier accompanied by three warships, with the U.S. 6th Fleet -- neither in makeup, nor in combat capability.

The Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, for example, has about 50 aircraft. The nine nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carriers of the U.S. Navy each carry 80. They also carry four E-2C early warning aircraft, which can spot targets hundreds of kilometers from the ship. The Russian carrier ship has no such planes. There is no need to continue.

The revival of the Russian navy is also too early to discuss.

The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov was laid down at Nikolayev -- now in Ukraine -- in 1982 and entered service in the 1990s. Russia has no other aircraft carriers either sailing or under construction. No production facilities yet exist for their production.

The Admiral Levchenko was built in 1988. Its cousin Admiral Chabanenko was laid down in 1990 and commissioned in 1999, while the Moskva was completed in 1983. Its first name was Slava.

Russia does not yet build new cruisers or Chabanenko-class anti-submarine destroyers. It is now looking forward to a new class of ships -- frigates. How they will fare is a big question. So it is too soon to lavish praise on the Russian navy.

Especially since its Main Command plans to move from Moscow to the Admiralty building in St. Petersburg, while the Institute of Naval Engineering, which currently occupies the building, is to be relocated to Pushkin, a suburb of St. Petersburg.

All this will call for huge effort and expense. The top brass will probably have no time left to deal with the construction of new cruisers, frigates or corvettes, let alone to revive the navy.

It cannot be ruled out that the television campaign about the "revival of the Russian navy" has been deliberate: to turn public attention away from the big scandal over the move to St. Petersburg, and, above all, to divert the attention of naval veterans, who are protesting the move and have even sent an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Advertising campaigns always have a hidden agenda.

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(Nikita Petrov is a military commentator. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti).

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