The Russian naval facility in Tartus refers to a military installation of the Russian Navy located in the port of the city of Tartus, Syria. Russian official usage classifies the installation as a Material-Technical Support Point (Russian: Пункт материально-технического обеспечения, ПМТО) and not a “base”. Tartus is the last Russian military facility outside the former Soviet Union, and its only Mediterranean repair and replenishment spot, sparing Russia’s warships the trip back to their Black Sea bases through the Turkish Straits.

Tartus hosts a Soviet-era naval supply and maintenance facility, under a 1971 agreement with Ba’athist Syria, which was—until the second year of the Syrian civil war—staffed by Russian naval personnel. Most recently, the facility hosts the Amur class floating workshop PM-138, capable of providing technical maintenance to Russian warships deployed in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Russian naval facility can accommodate four medium sized vessels only if both of its 100 meter long floating piers located on the inside of the northern breakwater were operational. It is not capable of hosting any of the Russian Navy’s current major warships which range in length from the 129 meter Neustrashimyy frigate through the 163 meter Udaloy destroyer, and much less cruisers such as the 186.4 meter Slava class, the 252 meter Kirov class, and the 305 meter Kuznetsov class.

For more info visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_naval_facility_in_Tartus
http://spioenkop.blogspot.nl/2013/02/syria-and-her-navy.html