MOSCOW – Russia has dispatched 10 submarines to the North Atlantic in thelargest such operation since the end of the Cold War.
The Russian submarines were sent for maneuvers from their base on the KolaPeninsula in Russia’s far north last week, Norway’s state broadcaster NRKreported Tuesday, citing sources from the Norwegian Intelligence Service.
They are seeking to reach as far into the Atlantic as possible withoutbeing detected, it claimed.
“There’s a lot of activity in the North Atlantic at the moment and Norwaytogether with other NATO states are monitoring with air and surfacecapabilities,” said Brynjar Stordal, a spokesman for the Norwegian armedforces.
This is the largest operation of its kind conducted by Russia “since theend of the Cold War by the number of assets operating at the same time,” headded.
The dispatch of submarines comes at a time of heightened tension betweenthe West and Russia.
President Vladimir Putin has warned of a new arms race and accused theUS of raising the risk of nuclear war after it quit the Cold War-eraIntermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and refused to hold talksabout another pact.
The treaty, seen as a milestone in ending the Cold War arms race betweenthe two superpowers, led to the elimination of 2,692 missiles from bothsides, ridding Europe of land-based nuclear missiles.
However, the US officially withdrew from the treaty on August 2, claimingthat Russia had first breached the pact by developing a missile of its own.
Moscow publicized the specifics of its missile to prove that it was notcovered by the INF treaty.