US monitors Russian submarines off east coast

US defence chiefs said today that they are monitoring the movements of two Russian submarines patrolling off the east coast of America.

The vessels are in international waters and have done nothing to provoke military concerns, an official from the US Northern Command said.

Their presence has raised eyebrows however, not least because Moscow failed to notify Washington of the exercise in advance. It also comes amid protest from Russia over US-Georgian military aid talks.

In recent months there has been a thawing of relations between the former Cold War rivals. Tensions caused by a proposed US missile defence shield in eastern Europe and last year's South Ossetian conflict have eased under the Obama administration.

But the submarine patrol comes as Russia voices disquiet over US-Georgian discussions over a request from the former Soviet state for US$16m (€11.1m) in military aid.

Last year's conflict between Russia and Georgia damaged relations between Moscow and Washington, with then-president George Bush accusing Russia of conducting foreign policy by means of bullying and intimidation.

Grigory Karasin, deputy Russian foreign minister, said yesterday that talk of American military assistance to Georgia was concerning.

"That worries us and forces us to take relevant steps," he said.

Defence chiefs in Moscow indicated that the submarine movement in the Atlantic was unconnected to its opposition to US military assistance to Georgia.

"It's a normal thing," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian military's general staff, said.

He added that the vessels had also engaged in missions off Russia's coasts.

In America the incident was being downplayed too.

A statement from the Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defence Command said: "We have been monitoring them during transit and recognise the right of all nations to exercise freedom of navigation in international waters according to international law."