FINANCES SEEN AS DECISIVE FOR BLACK SEA FLEET’S FATE.

Russiansources in the Black Sea Fleet’s financial service argue in theAugust 9 Komsomolskaya pravda that questions of funding,rather than jurisdiction, may ultimately prove decisive for theBlack Sea Fleet’s fate. Despite Russian-Ukrainian agreements providingfor joint financing of the Fleet, Russia alone allocates the funds.Meanwhile Ukraine levies 42 percent of those funds in taxes andfees, in effect "waging a financial war against the Fleetin order to push it away from Crimea."

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