"This article presents a list of events which highlight that strategic analyst Eric Wertheim's synopsis of the Russian Navy's activities during 2004 did not fully encapsulate many of the more memorable events of last year. In February the Delta IV-class ballistic missile submarines Novomoskovsk and Kareliya both failed to successfully launch SS-N-23 ballistic missiles during Exercise Bezopasnost 2004, one of the more "grandiose" strategic nuclear forces exercises in the past 20 years. In September, the Akula II-class nuclear-powered submarine Vepr conducted the first-ever visit by a Russian nuclear submarine to a North Atlantic Treaty country (France)."