US officials unsure about nature of Russian research
UNITED STATES: Russian ships are skulking around underwater communications cables, causing the US and its allies to worry the Kremlin might be taking information warfare to new depths.
US and Western officials are increasingly troubled by their rival’s interest in the 400 fibreoptic cables that carry most of the world’s calls, emails and texts, as well as $10 trillion worth of daily financial transactions.
‘‘We’ve seen activity in the Russian navy, and particularly undersea in their submarine activity, that we haven’t seen since the ‘80s,’’ General Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the US European Command, told Congress last month.
Without undersea cables, a bank in Asian countries couldn’t send money to Saudi Arabia to pay for oil or US military leaders would struggle to communicate with troops fighting extremists in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
All this information is transmitted along tiny glass fibres encased in undersea cables that, in some cases, are little bigger than a garden hose. All told, there are 998, 000 kilometres of fibre-optic cable running under the sea, enough to loop around the earth nearly 25 times.
Most lines are owned by private telecommunications companies. Their locations are easily identified on public maps, with swirling lines that look like spaghetti. While cutting one cable might have limited impact, severing sev- eral simultaneously could cause a major outage.
The Russians ‘‘are doing their homework and, in the event of a crisis or conflict with them, they might do rotten things to us,’’ said Michael Kofman, a Russian military expert at nonprofit research group CNA Corp.
It’s not Moscow’s warfighting ships and submarines that are making Nato and US officials uneasy. It’s Russia’s Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research, whose specialised surface ships, submarines, underwater drones and mini subs conduct reconnaissance, underwater salvage and other work.
One ship run by the directorate is the Yantar. It’s a modest, 108-metre oceanographic vessel. It most recently was off South America’s coast helping Argentina search for a lost submarine.
Parlamentskaya Gazeta, the Russian parliament’s publication, last October said the Yantar has equipment ‘‘designed for deep-sea tracking’’ and ‘‘connecting to topsecret communication cables.’’ There is no hard evidence that the ship is engaged in nefarious activity, said Steffan Watkins, an information technology security consultant in Canada tracking the ship. But he wonders what the ship is doing when it’s stopped over critical cables.
Of the Yantar’s crew, he said: ‘‘I don’t think these are the actual guys who are doing any sabotage. I think they’re laying the groundwork for future operations.’’ – AP