Russia shrugs off US fears over patrols by subs

A SENIOR Russian general yesterday shrugged off Washington’s concern about Cold War-style patrols of Russian nuclear submarines off the US coast, saying it was business as usual for Moscow to keep its navy in shape.

“I don’t know if it’s news to anyone,” Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russia’s deputy chief of general staff, told a news conference. “The navy should not stay idle at its moorings.”

He was commenting on a report in the New York Times that said two nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines had been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the US in a mission rare for post-Cold War times.

The newspaper said the submarines had not taken any provocative action beyond their presence outside US territorial waters, but Pentagon officials voiced wariness over Russia’s motivation for ordering such an unusual mission.

Nogovitsyn said: “As for their statements, we can also talk about them (US submarines), where they occur from time to time.

“So this (Russian patrols) is a normal process, and those making such statements understand this pretty well.”

Russia, keen to play a more assertive role on the world stage, relies heavily on its still formidable nuclear triad of land-based missiles, nuclear submarines and strategic bombers.

In 2007, it resumed Cold War-style flights of nuclear-capable bombers across the Atlantic.

“This is our right – we felt bored making circles along our internal routes,” Nogovitsyn, a military pilot, said of the decision to resume flights of strategic bombers along Nato borders.

“And you remember how much clamour this caused at the time – just because we started going out on combat patrols,” he said.

“But I must tell you that the battle potential of our strategic aviation has only seriously risen since then.”