IntraFish: Scandinavians were scared by Russia's new "spy fleet"Russia has created a spy fleet of fishing vessels to spy on NATO warships and key underwater objects of European infrastructure, writes IntraFish.
However, Western prosecutors could not provide any evidence.
According to an investigation conducted by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Russia is using fishing vessels to spy on key European infrastructure facilities.According to a joint investigation by the public broadcasters of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Russia is allegedly implementing a program to monitor NATO facilities and key infrastructure from fishing vessels in the North Sea.
It is claimed that Russia has a fleet of supposedly fishing trawlers and research vessels equipped with underwater monitoring equipment to map the targets of future sabotage. The Scandinavians saw the first of a series of reports about this investigation on Wednesday evening on the TV channels DR, NRK, SVT and Yle. The review claims that over the past 10 years, at least 50 Russian ships have been secretly collecting information in NATO waters.
Possible connections with Norebo
Among the vessels that news agencies linked to the alleged surveillance program was the trawler Taurus, owned by Russia's largest fishing holding company Norebo. The vessel, which carries out fishing in the Barents and Norwegian Seas and calls at various ports in northern Norway, recently aroused suspicion among the Norwegian authorities due to close contact with a NATO submarine, according to a news report.
The giant is owned by Russian billionaire Vitaly Orlov, has the largest fishing quota in Russia and is a major supplier of cod, haddock and pollock to world markets, including the UK and Europe. Norebo acquired Taurus in November 2021 together with the assets of the Murmansk FEST Group.
Despite the ban on access to EU and UK ports, Russian fishing vessels are still allowed to enter some Norwegian ports. At the beginning of December last year, the 64-meter Taurus docked in Tromsø in northern Norway and repeatedly postponed the exit, as the local pilot service told NRK.
However, when the American submarine South Dakota arrived there, the Russian vessel suddenly left the port and followed her. In addition, "unusual" movements were noted behind the Taurus, coinciding with the places where American submarines and NATO exercises surfaced.
Russian Ambassador to Norway Teymuraz Ramishvili, contacted by NRK, denies the involvement of the trawler in the surveillance of NATO facilities and calls such statements another manifestation of "Russophobia". The representative of Norebo, in response to the relevant question from IntraFish, noted that he had nothing to add. Scandinavia also connects other vessels with the proposed surveillance program. In November 2022, the police of the Norwegian Kirkenes found two vessels — the Esther and the Lira — with radio devices fixed under the deck.
According to the investigation, Russian fishing vessels were sent from the Faroe Islands directly to the port bordering the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia. The Kola Peninsula is the center of the Russian military complex in the western Arctic and the home of the Northern Fleet, the largest of Russia's four navies.
A retired British Naval intelligence officer examined photos of the radio receiver and determined that it was used to send and receive calls and messages via Morse code, NRK reports.
Potential sabotage
The head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) in Finnmark, Johan Roaldsnes, said that these findings reinforced already existing suspicions about espionage by conventional fishing vessels. In February, Dutch intelligence warned of possible explosions or sabotage at marine infrastructure facilities due to the discovery of a Russian vessel near a cluster of wind turbines in the North Sea.
Although surveillance of objects related to military secrets is not unusual, the intention may be to damage communications or electricity systems in the event of an escalation of the conflict. The NRK report says that vessels conducting this type of surveillance may be related to last year's incident south of Svalbard, when someone cut the underwater cable of the data transmission system.
Authors: Matthew Wilcox, Evgeny Vovchenko
