The crew of a ship of this class consists of several hundred people. The service on the flagship was considered particularly honorable. Ex-commanders were often given a chance to pursue a political career in Russia. Representatives of the command of the Black Sea Fleet and the Navy of the Russian Federation, who made up the field command stuff of the naval grouping, could have also been on board at the time of the sinking. In the war with Ukraine, the flagship provided anti-aircraft defense for the entire Russian naval grouping in the Black Sea.

The size of the crew varies from 416 to 758 people, including conscript sailors. The dimensions of the ship were impressive - 186.4 m * 20.8 m. The cruiser was as high as a 14-storey residential building could reach speeds of up to 32 knots.

Such cyclopean magnitude was stipulated by the developers in the early 1970s during the Cold War. Missile cruisers of the «Atlant» project were armed with such weapons as missiles, artillery, mines and torpedoes. Nevertheless, their most formidable weapons – 16 anti-ship missiles «Vulcan», which could carry nuclear warheads, were intended for the attacks against aircraft carriers of NATO fleets. «Atlant» was called the «killer of aircraft carriers». However, none of the ships of project 1164 have ever confirmed their formidable reputation in practice.

In the 1980s, «Slava» together with the entire Black Sea Fleet ensured the naval presence of the USSR in the Mediterranean Sea. It had to confront the U.S. Sixth Fleet there. The rhetoric of «rivalry» with America was inherited by the Russian crew of the missile cruiser in the 21st century.

The real interaction of this ship with the U.S. took place only within the framework of the Malta Summit in 1989. Then the Soviet delegation used «Slava». However, not for combat operations but for recreation. U.S. Navy officials also visited «Moskva» in the late 1990s and early 2000s as part of Russian-American military cooperation. Violations of safety regulations were recorded.

Even today, in times of Russian nuclear blackmail, neither the United States nor NATO have security strategies in the Black Sea. Instead, Russia rewrote its own maritime doctrine after occupying Crimea. Although the previous one was already quite imperial and was calculated until 2020. The Russian Federation updates the document once again after the loss of «Moskva». Now Russia officially declares aggressive intentions to militarize the entire world ocean.

The flagship of the Black Sea Fleet is the only one of the «Atlantes» that still managed to take part in the war. However, the anti-ship «Vulcans» were not needed in the combat operations of «Moskva». Its opponent did not have a formidable fleet. Especially the one with aircraft carriers.

In March 2014, Russian troops blocked the Ukrainian naval base in Lake Donuzlav. They encircle the base, disrupt radio communication, and block the basing points of the naval composition from sea and land. A missile boat, minesweepers and tugboats are involved in the operation. «Moskva» demonstratively joins the blockade.

The hybrid aggression of Russia in Crimea was hybrid at sea as well. By blocking Ukrainian ships in the bays, the ships of the Black Sea Fleet simulate a malfunction, the inability to open a passage. This does not result in a strong international reaction, so the Russians act even more brazenly. They sink their outdated diving vessels and an anti-submarine ship for the success of the blockade. 

In those days, Western correspondents in Ukraine are disoriented. Few of them manage to reach the center of events in Crimea. Reuters writes from Novoozerne about the blocking of a third part of Ukrainian warships by «Moskva». 

Irony often accompanied «Moskva». The name of the cruiser was questionable from the beginning. The functionality and home station were unjustified. A technologically outdated, sizable, complex ship is extremely expensive to maintain and update. The cruiser could have gone in the right direction a long time ago. However, the ambitions outweighed the doubts. Yury Luzhkov played an important role in this regard.

Back in the 1990s, the mayor of the Russian capital actively participated in «solving the problems» of the Black Sea Fleet. Although it is stationed almost 2,000 km away from his own electoral district, in another country. It was not enough for the mayor of Moscow to deal solely with the problems of the capital – ranging from illegal construction to brutal terrorist attacks of that time. He publicly reflects on the city of «Russian glory» in Ukraine, on the «indivisibility» of the Russian and Belarusian states, on Georgian «challenges», on Chechen «threats», on the «hostile» west in general. 

Luzhkov belonged to the cohort of «red directors», in the post-Soviet years he changed his party affiliation several times, often occupied legally incompatible positions, and actually headed the capital of the Russian Federation for 19 years. He was the one who directed the funds of the Moscow government and insisted on the reconstruction of «Slava» in Mykolaiv. This is how the ship got a new name. Representatives of Moscow in Sevastopol emphasized their importance in allegedly supporting the local economy. Although the new realities provided a wide range of opportunities for the development of the tourist industry at the seaside, the Russians strengthened their own military base in Crimea in the first place. Those decisions obviously had other reasons than merely economic.

As soon as a consensus was reached in Ukraine and the Constitution was adopted, it was sharply criticized in Moscow. First, they resented the status of Crimea and Sevastopol. Luzhkov was the one who played a decisive role among the initiators. On December 4, 1996, after «hearing and discussing» the statement of Luzhkov, the Federation Council of the Russian Federation formed a «special commission» on the legal status of the Ukrainian city. Then the issue was resolved, but the great power ambitions remained.

Luzhkov encroached not only on Sevastopol. He systematically showed disregard for the sovereignty of Ukraine. In 2004, in opposition to the Orange Revolution, he arrived in Ukrainian Severodonetsk for an anti-constitutional congress of pro-Russian politicians. In Ukraine, the mayor of Moscow was either declared persona non grata or awarded honorary titles. Taking advantage of the instability of the young democracy, he regularly visited Crimea. He developed his own business there and was engaged in undisguised propaganda of the Russian Federation. The latter was mainly about the cruiser, which has become an obtrusive reminder of the USSR and the «Russian history» of Crimea.

The occupation of Crimea and certain areas of two Ukrainian regions in 2014 finally exposed the ambitions of the Russian Federation, the true price of the agreements with Moscow. In 2022, even the lone Ukrainian defenders of the Zmiinyi Island that met the the Russian flagship face to face, did not conclude an agreement with the aggressor.

On the night of February 24, 2022, 80 Ukrainian defenders were stationed on the 17-hectare island in the Black Sea. These are mainly border guards and marines, a few more soldiers of the Ground Forces and the Air Force. Just 200 km from Mykolaiv, the crew of «Moskva», at first anonymously, threatens the Ukrainians from Zmiinyi via the open international communication channel for ships. 

Threats are followed by open intimidation already in the morning. A depressing atmosphere is caused by uncertainty and knowledge that the forces are unequal. Only in the afternoon, the Russian patrol vessel «Vasily Bykov» and the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation finally loom on the horizon.

The Russians start artillery fire from the naval gun barrels, and then carry out airstrikes on the Ukrainian island. Evacuation boats still have the time to get from the mainland to Zmiinyi. However, they only take 3 civilians with them. All Ukrainian fighters remain there and continue to defend their land. The Russians destroy everything on the island.