The US fears possible sabotage aimed at destroying underwater communications infrastructure.
Russia has stepped up military activity around key underwater cables. The US believes that the risk of potential Russian sabotage aimed at disabling a critical part of the global communications infrastructure has increased.
CNN reports this, citing two anonymous US government officials.
According to one of the publication's sources, Russia has created a special unit, GUGI (Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research of the General Staff), which includes warships, submarines and sea drones.
“We are concerned about the increased activity of the Russian Navy around the world and that Russia's plans to damage critical undersea infrastructure of the United States and its allies may be changing. Russia continues to develop naval capabilities for underwater sabotage, primarily through the top-secret GUGI unit,” the source said.
The publication notes that the United States regularly tracks Russian ships that pass near critical maritime infrastructure and undersea cables, often far from Russian shores, but there have been no official statements about the risk of underwater sabotage from Russia so far.
A vast network of high-speed fiber-optic cables laid along the ocean floor is a critical backbone of Internet and telecommunications traffic around the world. A coordinated attack on underwater infrastructure could significantly disrupt private, government, and military communications, as well as industries that rely on such communications, including financial markets. Undersea cables also transmit vast amounts of electricity between several European countries.
Russian naval activity has been particularly high in the seas around Northern Europe. Last year, a joint investigation by Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland found that Russia had about 50 suspected spy ships that could be preparing sabotage in northern European waters, targeting both underwater communications and wind farms.
According to the publication's second source, the Kremlin attaches great importance to the GUGI unit and continues to fund it despite the huge costs of the war in Ukraine.
The sources noted that the US would view any sabotage against underwater infrastructure as a significant escalation of Russian aggression outside of Ukraine.
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