Russian embassy in London rebuts British claim of Russian submarine activity
London: The Russian Embassy in Britain dismissed a claim by British Defence Secretary John Healey of Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic as neither credible nor verifiable.
Earlier Thursday, Healey said Britain and Norway had led a month-long operation to track Russian submarines near key undersea cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Russian embassy said in a statement that it was “impossible to either believe or verify” Healey’s claim that Britain spent weeks repelling the “aggression” of an alleged Russian submarine in neutral waters using “only a single vessel and a surveillance aircraft.”
A British warship and aircraft were deployed to deter the “malign” activity by Moscow and there was “no evidence” of any damage to UK infrastructure in the Atlantic, he added.
Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, Healey said: “We see you. We see your activity over our cables and our pipelines, and you should know that any attempt to damage them will not be tolerated and will have serious consequences.”
London had recently issued “extremely aggressive statements and threats” targeting merchant ships operating in the interests of Russian companies and their partners, the embassy added, warning that “if these threats are translated into action, there will be consequences.”
The embassy said Russia does not threaten undersea infrastructure critical to Britain, nor does it use aggressive rhetoric on the issue, noting that the responsibility for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines “rested with Western countries.”