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[Russia’s Yantar “research vessel", after] its numerous appearances near the United States, Britain and western Europe [...] adopted a newly provocative stance this week, angering UK's Ministry of Defence by training lasers on RAF aircraft as it patrolled in the North Sea.
Yantar's task is thought to be surveillance of underwater fibre optic and other communication cables — both civilian and military — as well as gas pipelines, and the brazen confidence with which it goes about its work has got western politicians feeling on edge.
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Analysts say the British government needs to ramp up its response as President Putin develops new craft and technology for marine sabotage in case the new Cold War turns hot.
Sidharth Kaushal, a senior researcher in sea power at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank, believes the Yantar’s behaviour this week could signal future escalation. “I don’t think this is an acute crisis but it does show the general direction of travel in terms of how the Russians are approaching Europe and their special services are becoming more risk acceptant,” he added.
That places the Yantar in a wider pattern of conduct in the past two years exemplified by Moscow being accused of starting fires at European ammunition dumps, crippling the communications of German and Polish railway networks and sending incendiary devices to DHL logistics hubs in Britain and Germany.
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Kaushal said that “much more needs to be done to secure [critical western undersea infrastructure] and there needs to be greater ability to constrain the activity of assets like the Yantar”.
Such measures could mirror some of Russia’s own “ways of making a vessel uncomfortable without necessarily crossing into open warfare”, such as radar jamming or the deployment of a directed energy weapon, he added.
Another tactic would be to strengthen legislation to crack down on Russia’s use of a shadow fleet of ostensibly commercial vessels for proxy sabotage.
There have been a series of incidents in which vessels with provable or suspected Russian links were accused of causing deliberate destruction. The Eagle S tanker allegedly damaged five undersea cables by dragging its anchor between Finland and Estonia in December last year, while the Newnew Polar Bear and the Yi Peng Three, Chinese ships, were involved in similar incidents in the Baltic.
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Experts believe that the Yantar is engaged in mapping sub-sea infrastructure rather than damaging it, but that Russia already has sabotage capabilities way beyond any other country and the boundaries are being tested.
The Yantar is only one element of a wider Russian effort to probe and exploit weaknesses. Its azimuth thrusters — propellers in steerable pods — mean it can maintain its position for long periods as it conducts intelligence-gathering.
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Lee Willett, an independent naval analyst, said Russia has less need for undersea cables than the US and Britain because of its large land mass and contiguous allies.
Willett agreed that Britain needed a robust response to Moscow’s efforts. “You have to have a very visible presence at sea and a very connected surveillance network both below the surface, on the surface and in the air,” he said. “The crucial points in these underwater networks have to be defended.” The ship has its own surveillance equipment and sensors but it can also deploy two-man Rus and Consul submersibles which can dive to about 6,000m (20,000ft).
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