Are the Russians considering abandoning Crimea?

In response to the recent spate of BBC articles on Russia's southern naval fleet at Sevastopal and the expiration of the Russia-Ukraine lease agreement in 2017, I don't buy the argument that Sevastopol is physically better suited for housing naval fleets than other coastal areas that are situated in Russia proper (see NASA topography map and notice where the Black Sea shelf lies). Of course, it would cost the Russians a large amount of capital to buid a new base elsewhere along the Black Sea coast, but when have government finances been an issue in Russia since the ruble collapse in '98? In terms of submarines, most of Russia's submarine fleet operates in the North and Baltic Seas and Pacific Ocean since Russia, like the US, does not like to send its very expensive and ordinance-ladened submarines through the Turkish Straits for the obvious reason it is one the most crowded and dangerous shipping lanes in the world.

Moreover, the naval fleet in the Black Sea is used primarily to control the Black Sea and to provide a military rebuff if need be against US dominance over the Mediterranean and critical choke points of the Sinai Peninsula (hence US naval presence in Egypt), Gulf of Aden (hence US naval presence in Djibouti and formerly Yemen before the Cole bombing), and Strait of Hormuz (hence US presence in Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain). Now look at how the US applies the concept of forward operating bases around the critical shipping channels of the world, and ask yourself, why in the world does Russia care about Sevastopol when all the threats to Russian cargo ships are for the most part confined to the entire southern half of the northern hemisphere (take the recent example of the Somali pirate hijacking of the Ukranian freighter where the Russians joined in the US naval armada encircling the hijacked vessel).

The Russians are maintaining Sevastopol for the identical reason the Americans maintain an understaffed and underfunded air base in the middle of the desert in Utah -- it keeps the locals employed and it would be a big blow to the prestige of the town if the base was shut down. However, when it comes to the projection of Russian military power, there's absolutely no need for the base in the Black Sea other than to reign in Georgia perhaps, and then who really cares when it's so much easier to bomb the country.

In the end, I'm sure the Russians would much rather be leasing a naval base in Karachi or in Jakarta than in Sevastopol. It's competition pure and simple, and the Ukranians simply aren't competitive anymore, especially when no one cares about a bunch of Ottomans controlling the Black Sea, and it takes the US a month to get a ship full of humanitarian supplies from Annapolis to the Georgian ports of Poti or Batumi.