The docking of the nuclear-powered heavy missile cruiser Pyotr Velikiy in Cape Town marks the first time a Russian naval vessel has berthed in a South African port in more than 200 years *1.

Less than 20 years ago, the two countries were Cold War enemies, but it was all bonhomie and mutual compliments at the press conference on board the ship on Wednesday.

Admiral Rusty Hicks (sic - Higgs), from the South African Navy, and Rear Admiral Vladimir Kazatonov, from the Russian Federation Navy, almost outdid each other in saying how they admired each other's navy and looked forward to increased co-operation.

The ship, named after Peter the Great, is on its way from Venezuela, where it took part in exercises with the Venezuelan Navy, to the Indian Ocean to "perform some responsibilities", Kazatonov said.

These include helping to fight piracy off Somalia and offer protection to the merchant navy.

"The national forces are not capable of defeating piracy - I'm sure we can be part of the international effort to fight piracy," Kazatonov said.

He said the ship did not have nuclear weapons on board, in keeping with the agreement with the United States.

The deeply tanned captain, Felix Men'kov - the only person allowed to smoke anywhere on the ship, we learnt - took reporters and photographers on a tour of the vessel, rattling off the nature and number of an astonishing array of weapons.

The ship has a maximum speed of 30 knots, has two helicopters on board and, because it is nuclear-powered, can sail around the globe 50 times without refuelling.

"It is the biggest and most powerful ship of its type in the world," the captain said.

Commissioned in St Petersburg in 1995, the primary purpose of the 250-metre ship was to destroy cruise missiles and air and shore targets, and to accompany convoys at sea, Men'kov said.

The ship has torpedo tubes and can destroy a submarine at 40km. It has 20 attack missiles that can destroy a ship or land target up to 550km away.

Sailors in camouflage stood at mounted machine guns that fire 3 000 rounds a minute and are used to destroy any vessel that comes within the 200m exclusion zone around the ship.

"First we radio the vessel. If there is no answer, we will fire a warning shot. If they do not change course or reduce speed, we shoot to destroy."

There had been no need yet to do this.

The 12-deck warship is air-conditioned and has a library, sauna and small swimming pool for the crew of 980.

Crew who had shore leave were hurrying up the gangplank with shopping bags brimming with goods, from Coke to Weetbix.

A Russian warship has helped foil a pirate attack on a Dutch container ship in the dangerous Gulf of Aden, Sapa-AP reports.

Six pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades at the ship, which began evasive manoeuvres while calling for help, Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Malaysia, said.

The pirates chased the ship for about 30 minutes in the waters off Somalia, but aborted their attempt to board when a Russian warship and helicopter arrived, Choong said.

Russian naval spokesperson Igor Dygalo said a helicopter from the Admiral Vinogradov warship, which is patrolling off the Horn of Africa, fired at three speedboats that were trying to attack the Dutch ship. Three pirates were said to have been wounded.

One of the speedboats was halted near Yemeni waters and Russian teams boarded the others, finding ropes with grappling hooks and gas canisters, but no fishing equipment.

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Times on January 15, 2009

With acknowledgements to Cape Argus.
 

That Russian warship was the meanest looking thing I've ever seen, but it had a radar cross-section like one of Zuma's wife's bottoms.