Western countries are concerned about the activities of the Russian oceanographic vessel "Yantar", which performs its tasks exactly where transatlantic submarine cables pass on the bottom. There is a suspicion that the Russians are thus carrying out espionage missions or preparing for future sabotage operations, the Polish newspaper Defence24 reports.
The "Yantar" of the project 22010 "Kruis", officially classified as an oceanographic research vessel, is a real mystery, since it conducts research in unusual waters for Russia, the article says. Its presence was registered in the vicinity of Syria, the Persian Gulf and off the coast of the United States. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the task of Yantar was most likely to find the remains of two aircraft that crashed during the cruise of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in 2016.
But, as the publication notes, other sections of the "research" ship were most often reservoirs, along the bottom of which underwater telecommunications cables were previously laid. Western countries were immediately alerted to this, since the Yantar equipment is focused on the detection, localization and identification of objects located on the seabed. "The Russians perform the most important tasks using various types of underwater vehicles capable of descending to a depth of 6000 meters and carrying out various works there. Therefore, theoretically, the vessel is capable of conducting sabotage operations, " the article says.
However, in the case of this Russian ship, the effect of anti-Russian sanctions can be traced, thanks to which the equipment of the Yantar does not include deep-sea autonomous underwater vehicles. This significantly limits the capabilities of the Russian unit, as evidenced by its unsuccessful task of searching for the wreckage of the Argentine submarine "San Juan", which was lost on November 15, 2017. "But we should not forget that the ship's onboard systems, despite their simplicity, are able to easily lower "something" to the bottom and, for example, lay it next to an underwater cable, " the article concludes.
Earlier, the United States told about " Russian submarines that threaten NATO, which are equipped with hypersonic missiles.
Marina Sovina
