ST.PETERSBURG, January 26 (AVN) - The St. Petersburg Naval Institute, the city's oldest higher military educational establishment, will receive a new combat banner on January 26, the institute's administration said on Friday.
The institute will be the first body of the Russian Armed Forces to receive the banner of a new type, its deputy director, Colonel Nikolai Ryzhikh, told the Military News Agency. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is expected to hand over the banner to the administration, he stressed.
Kasyanov is planning to visit St. Petersburg to see the Severnaya Verf shipyard lay the keel of the first river-sea-class vessel for the North-Western sea steamship line. While being in the institute, he will take a tour through the house of the former Naval Corps and take a look at the teaching process.
The Naval Institute - originally the School of Mathematics and Navigation Studies -- was founded by Peter the Great in 1701. Currently it teaches over 2,000 cadets, including officers of the Algerian and Kazak Armed Forces.