Russia Has More Than One Slava Class Cruiser

(Source: aeronautics.ru)

17 September - The Slava class missile cruiser Moskva is getting all the press, but lately its the Pacific Fleet flagship Varyag that doing all the shooting:

[The Varyag] successfully completed a long range missile firing on a surface target...

"In the opinion of Rear Admiral Sergey Avakyantsa who led the exercises, the firing conducted by the crew of the Varyag was carried out successfully: the sea target was destroyed with the first missile..."

He said that earlier, the crews of minesweepers successfully carried out several tasks including destruction of sea mines using active line charges. The crews of other ships executed anti-swimmer exercises using hand grenades. It was part of an exercise designed to defend ships at undefended roadsteads from sabateurs (Comment: with places like Tartus in mind, perhaps?).

"The task force carried out effective fire against surface targets using anti-aircraft missiles in a surface to surface role during the maneuvers. This has been done successfully by the Pacific Fleet for ten years now. The sailors of the Black Sea fleet used similar tactics in August against the Georgians in order to force them to peace. The task force also successfully destroyed attacking enemy air forces."

[...]

The latest Pacific Fleet exercises are the third in the last month. All have them have bee part of the summer training cycle. More than 50 ships and submarines have taken part in the previous two exercises held off of Kamchatka and Primor'ye as well as elements of naval aviation, coastal defense and marines.