Submarines are usually secretly acting and lurking deeply. Therefore, when the British Defense Minister John Healey authorized the Royal Navy's sensitive attack submarine in November, when the water surfaced by Yantar, a "spy ship" in the south of Corwol, the water surface, this It's unusual enough.

However, it is even more noteworthy that the minister continued to tell what he did to the House of Lords on Wednesday. Higher said that this was "strictly as a deterrent measure." He accused the Kremlin of the decision to monitor the positions of underground communication and public cables connecting the UK and the world.

Searching infrastructure on the sea is nothing new, and the depth and distance of the sea floor make it difficult for cables to protect. At the beginning of the First World War, Britain cut off several German wireless cables, forcing Berlin to communicate easily through London's connection. Recently, in June 2018, Yantar was tracked by the British destroyer HMS Diamond when he passed through the British destroyer.

Today's difference is that the security environment between the West and Russia and China has continued to deteriorate -and a series of incidents in the Baltic Sea forced the entire Nordic Cang to promote military re -evaluation and take new security actions.

Cutting and damaging the underwater connection, especially the optical fiber Internet cable that is sometimes not much thicker than the garden hose, which is relatively simple, and it is easy to cover and hide. Just as the Jantear wandered in the British waters in November, it showed that Moscow desired to expand its threat.

On Christmas Day, a tanker "EAGLE S" registered in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean was about 60 miles on the sea of ​​Polo, and eventually damaged a power cable and four data cables between Finland and Estonia. Although the tanker has been detained by Finland, it is unclear whether the incident was intentional or accident.

In November, two Internet cables -one connected to Sweden and Lithuania, and the other connected to Finland and Germany -stop working for a day. They were damaged at the intersection and were only 10 square meters. They suspected that it was caused by a Chinese ship "Wing Peng 3" sailing from the port of Lux, Russia's Baltic Sea.

The Chinese authorities are leading the investigation of the incident, and Sweden complains that when the ship stays in the Baltic Sea for a month, its prosecutor is not allowed to board the ship for investigation. Since then, the "Wing Peng 3" has traveled to West Airlines, and the incident is still investigating. Russia suspects that Russia is a behind -the -scenes of the incident. It is believed that it was a destruction event, but Moscow denied it.

At the beginning of January, the United Kingdom and the Nordic and Baltic countries announced the action of Nordic Guardians. It will monitor 22 regions of the Strait, Denmark and Sweden, and suspicious merchant ships in the North Sea and the North Sea, and use artificial intelligence to identify target vessels. If suspicious activities are found, it will be coordinated between participating countries.

From the perspective of Yantar's activities, Russia has not been completely delayed so far. Earlier this week, the ship that was officially worked as a research ship passed through the British Channel from west to east within two days, prompting Higher to publicize the details of the November incident. However, this time, the Janteal did not linger in the British waters.

This is currently a political information game. Similar submarine diplomacy also occurred last summer. At that time, the United States made a rare Ohio -class ballistic missile nuclear submarine "Tennesi" in the Norwegian waters in June. This is a response to Russia's dispatch of nuclear -powered cruise missiles in Cuba.

Jonathan Bentham, a think tank analyst at the Institute of International Strategic Research Institute, described HMS Astute in November as "a bit flexible" -This is part of the effort that made the Royal Navy more confident (worth noting The reason is that Donald Trump took a few days after taking office). "The military usually does not comment on submarine operations. Therefore, the (Higen) remarks show that (between London and Moscow) have increased," Bian Qin said.

It is not clear whether Russia wants West to pay the price because of supporting Ukraine, which is effective. Tests will be performed in the Baltic Sea or other sea in the next few weeks, and whether there are another fragile cable or pipeline will be damaged in a dark environment. "I don't think we are close to the war with Russia, but the boundaries are becoming blurred," Bian Qin said. "This is an unstable situation."