Vladivostok

Vladivostok (Russian: Владивосто́к; IPA: [vlədʲɪvɐˈstok], literally ruler of the East) is a city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia, located at the head of the Golden Horn Bay, not far from Russia's borders with China and North Korea. The population of the city as of the 2010 Census was 592,034, down from 594,701 recorded in the 2002 Census. The city is the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet and the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean.

Names

The name Vladivostok loosely translates from Russian as "the ruler of the East"—a name similar to Vladikavkaz which means "the ruler of the Caucasus". In Chinese, the place where the city is situated nowadays was known since the Qing Dynasty as Haishenwai (海參崴, Hǎishēnwǎi), from the Manchu "Haišenwei" or "small seaside village"; the Chinese name can also be interpreted as "sea cucumber bay". In modern-day China, it is officially known by the transliteration Fuladiwosituoke (符拉迪沃斯托克, Fúlādíwòsītuōkè), although the historical Chinese name Haishenwai is still often used in common parlance and outside mainland China to refer to the city. The Japanese name of the city is Urajiosutoku (ウラジオストク; a rough transliteration of the Russian originally written in Kanji as 浦塩斯徳 and often shortened to Urajio; ウラジオ; 浦塩). In Korean, the name is transliterated as Beulladiboseutok (블라디보스토크) in South Korea, Ullajibosŭttokhŭ (울라지보스또크) in North Korea, and Beullajiboseu-ttokeu (블라지보스또크) by Koreans in China.

Project 21900 icebreaker

Project 21900 and Project 21900M icebreakers (also referred as LK-16) are a series of five Russian icebreakers. Two project 21900 icebreakers (Moskva and Sankt-Peterburg) were built at Baltic Shipyard in Saint Petersburg in 2008 and three project 21900M icebreakers are currently under construction, two at Vyborg Shipyard in Vyborg and one at Arctech Helsinki Shipyard in Helsinki. Two of the new vessels (Vladivostok and Murmansk) are expected to enter service in 2015 and the last one (Novorossiysk) in 2016. The construction of the 21900M class icebreakers are conducted under the Federal Target Programme "Development of the Transport System of Russia (2010 – 2015)".

The main tasks of the project 21900/21900M class vessels are icebreaking and assisting of heavy-tonnage vessels in ice, towing of vessels and other floating structures both in ice and in open water. The vessels will also be used for fire fighting on floating objects and other facilities, assisting vessels in distress in ice and open water and cargo transportation.

Russian amphibious assault ship Vladivostok

Vladivostok is an amphibious assault ship of the French Mistral class built for the Russian Navy, which underwent some sea trials. Subsequently the contract was cancelled by France and agreement on compensation reached with the Russian government. The ship will be purchased by Egypt instead.

History

The Russian government placed an order for the ship in 2011. The construction of the ship would be shared between the countries with France building about 60 percent and Russia 40. Work started in France, in Saint-Nazaire, on 1 February 2012 and in the Russian Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in St. Petersburg in October 2012. Russia would send its parts to France for final assembly. The ship was expected to join the Russian Navy in 2015. The ship was launched on 15 October 2013. The ship began its first sea trials on 5 March 2014.

Savings in construction costs were anticipated, due to the use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) parts, rather than requiring every system to be designed to military standards.