Russia may be involved in the damage to the underwater cables of the Lofoten-Westerolen Marine Observatory off the coast of Northern Norway, capable of tracking the movement of submarines. Such an accusation is given in the publication of the publication The Drive.
The publication claims that what happened "aroused suspicions of deliberate sabotage, possibly carried out by the Russian government, which definitely has the means for this."
According to the portal newsinenglish.no, more than 4.3 kilometers of the 66-kilometer network of specially designed marine fiber-optic and electrical cables connecting the nodes of underwater sensors with control stations on the shore have been cut and disappeared. The cables were located on the Norwegian continental shelf and allowed monitoring of the underwater situation in the Norwegian Sea. Damage to the system paralyzed its operation.
The data from the system, formally claimed to be scientific, was first received by the Norwegian Institute of Defense Research, where, after verification, they were sent to the country's Institute of Marine Research.
"Russia has special-purpose submarines that may well be equipped to cut cables or even remove them for further study," writes The Drive.
The publication emphasizes that the Norwegian side is currently studying the circumstances of the incident.
In July 2019 at the naval Institute of the United States stated that the nuclear deep-water station AC-31 "Losharik", which earlier in the same month there was a fire, designed for deployment in the North Atlantic, in particular, operations on an imaginary line connecting the Greenland and the British Isles (Faeroe-Iceland Italy), where is the American sonar and anti-submarine sound surveillance system SOSUS (SOund SUrveillance System).
Ivan Potapov
