Moscow. The 14th of February. INTERFAX-AVN - Russia is ready to strike at violators of its maritime border, but the decision on this is being made at the highest level, Deputy Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov said.
"We are always ready... But the fact is that such decisions are made only at the highest level," Gadzhimagomedov said at a round table in the Federation Council, answering the question whether the Russian army is ready to open fire on violators in cases similar to the incident with an American submarine that entered the territorial waters of the Russian Federation on Saturday.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a Russian warship forced an American submarine to leave the territorial waters of the Russian Federation in the Kuril region, where the Russian Navy is conducting exercises.
The incident occurred on February 12 at 10:40 in the area of a planned exercise of the Pacific Fleet forces in the territorial waters of the Russian Federation near the island of Urup of the Kuril Ridge. A US Navy submarine of the Virginia type was found there, the ministry said in a statement.
It noted that the crew of the submarine was notified of its presence in Russian territorial waters, he was given a request for immediate surfacing, which was ignored.
"In accordance with the guidelines for the protection of the state border of the Russian Federation in the underwater environment, the crew of the frigate of the Pacific Fleet Marshal Shaposhnikov used appropriate means," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"The American submarine used a self-propelled simulator to split targets on radar and acoustic monitoring equipment and left the territorial waters of the Russian Federation at maximum speed," the Defense Ministry noted.
For his part, the representative of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Kyle Raines, said that American submarines did not conduct operations in Russian territorial waters. "What Russia has said about our operations in its territorial waters is not true," the military official said in a statement on February 13. He said: "I won't comment on the exact location of our submarines, but we fly, sail and operate safely in international waters."
