MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia said
Saturday that it had chased away
a US submarine that had
approached its territorial waters
in the Barents Sea.
A representative of the naval
headquarters told Russian news
agencies that what was believed
to be a Virginia class fast attack
submarine was discovered close
to Russian territorial waters on
Friday.
Thanks to “active measures by the
Northern Fleet’s anti-submarine
forces, the submarine was
‘pushed away’” from the area near
Russia’s territorial waters in the
Arctic, the naval official was
quoted as saying by Interfax news
agency.
An anti-submarine aircraft was
also involved in the operation, in
which no force was used.
The official said contact with the
sub lasted 27 minutes, and was
far from the only incident with
foreign subs in that part of the
Russian Arctic recently.
The deputy head of the Russian
parliament’s foreign affairs
committee, Leonid Kalashnikov,
said on Echo of Moscow radio that
such incidents are quite common.
“Occasionally other countries test
how the submarine location
service is working,” the lawmaker
said, suggesting that the rather
unusual announcement was a
public relations move by the navy
to call attention to their work.
The incident comes amid
heightened tensions between the
West and Russia over Moscow’s
role in the Ukraine crisis

I smell war...

#TeamRussia anyweiz