Navy reforms taking its toll on Severomorsk
Unemployment in Russia’s Northern Fleet’s main base in Severomorsk, Murmansk Oblast, increased with 80 percent in course of the last year. The reason is the ongoing reform of the Russian Navy.
Only in December, twice as many people registered at the employment service than in the same period in 2008, TV Murman reports. Unemployment is especially hitting women the hardest. Severomorsk is a typical military town with very limited job opportunities for civilians, who are the first to be discharges from the navy.
Director at the employment service in Severomorsk Sergey Lisovski says they have been given very little information about the cutbacks from the navy command:
- Nobody knows what to do. The servicemen in the Northern Fleet do not know what is going on, and there has been no information since the last coordinating council, where they said that 3000 people would be discharged, but nobody knows this for sure.
The Russian Navy’s cutbacks have had deeper implications on Severomorsk than the financial crisis, Head of Department for Economical Development in Severomorsk Svetlana Pechnikova said earlier this year. Both the town’s mayor and the Military Servicemen’s Trade union have expressed fear of the possible consequences of the planned reductions of Northern Fleet personnel, BarentsObserver reported.
