More Than 50 Ghost Ships: Northern Europe Reveals Russia's Secret Operations In Its Waters

Russia is preparing large-scale sabotage operations.

Russian military and civilian "ghost ships" are moving around in the Baltic and North Seas and collecting data for sabotage against wind farms, gas pipelines and communication cables.

A joint investigation by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland reveals this, European Pravda reports.

Russian intelligence activities were uncovered when Scandinavian broadcasters DK, NRK, SVT and Yle investigated information on radio traffic and the location of Russian ships around their states.

A large number of Russian military and civilian ships in the waters around Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden are studying the seabed with special equipment and finding out how the infrastructure of these countries is interconnected.

Experts believe Russia's goal is to obtain information that would enable it to sabotage, among other things, the distribution of electricity to northwest Europe or to carry out sabotage, including by cutting power and data cables across the Atlantic and into the rest of Europe.

The investigation suggests that there are Russian "ghost ships" floating in the waters of Northern Europe. These are ships that have switched off their so-called AIS transmitters and do not report their whereabouts.

An example is the Russian Navy ship Admiral Vladimirskiy. Officially, it is engaged in maritime research but, according to sources, it is also used for reconnaissance work.

In particular, the ship was moving in the vicinity of seven wind farms off the coast of Britain and the Netherlands during one mission. The ship slowed down as it approached the areas with wind farms.

When journalists approached the ship in a small boat, they encountered a man in a balaclava holding a weapon that looked like a military assault rifle.

The same ship was spotted off the Scottish coast last year when it entered the Moray Ferth on November 10, about 30 nautical miles east of Lossiemouth, where a fleet of Royal Air Force maritime patrol aircraft is based.

A Danish counter-intelligence officer told reporters that the Russian Federation was preparing sabotage plans in case of an all-out conflict with the West. The head of Norwegian intelligence noted to investigators that this military programme is crucial to Russia and is controlled directly from Moscow.