Moscow says chases US sub away

Russia said Saturday that it had chased away a US submarine that had
approached its territorial waters in the Barents Sea.

A representative of the naval headquarters told Russian news agencies
that what was believed to be a Virginia class fast attack submarine
was discovered close to Russian territorial waters on Friday.

Thanks to "active measures by the Northern Fleet's anti-submarine
forces, the submarine was 'pushed away'" from the area near Russia's
territorial waters in the Arctic, the naval official was quoted as
saying by Interfax news agency.

An anti-submarine aircraft was also involved in the operation, in
which no force was used.

The official said contact with the sub lasted 27 minutes, and was far
from the only incident with foreign subs in that part of the Russian
Arctic recently.

The deputy head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee,
Leonid Kalashnikov, said on Echo of Moscow radio that such incidents
are quite common.

"Occasionally other countries test how the submarine location service
is working," the lawmaker said, suggesting that the rather unusual
announcement was a public relations move by the navy to call attention
to their work.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between the West and
Russia over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis

AFP