The Drive: Russia may be involved in damage to Norwegian submarine cable
An underwater fiber-optic cable laid between the Norwegian mainland and the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean has been disabled or damaged as a result of a mysterious incident, writes the American edition of The Drive, citing data from Space Norway.
The publication notes that the cable supports the operation of the satellite station in Svalbard, and also provides access to broadband Internet in the Arctic archipelago. The publication notes that the mainland and the archipelago are connected by two cables, one of which continues to work.
The Drive assures that the cables are located in the Arctic region, strategically important for the Russian Navy, through which Russian nuclear submarines enter the Atlantic Ocean. According to the publication, this circumstance may raise suspicions of Russia's involvement in the incident.
The Drive admits that there is no evidence of Russia's role in the incident, but assures that the country has all the means to do so. The publication also admits that the underwater cable could have been damaged for another reason, for example, during dredging operations during mineral exploration.
In November, The Drive stated that 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.
In July 2019, the US Naval Institute announced that the AS-31 Losharik nuclear deep-water station, which had a fire earlier in the same month, was intended for deployment in the North Atlantic. In particular, we are talking about conducting operations on the conditional line connecting Greenland and the British Isles (the Faroe-Icelandic border), where the American sonar anti-submarine sound surveillance system SOSUS (SOund SUrveillance System) is located.
