Russian ships, allegedly targeting underwater cabling, have quadrupled in three years
Two Naval patrol boats have completed a 90-hour mission accompanying four Russian ships passing Portuguese territorial waters.
According to many sources and reports, these ships are either spying on underwater cabling (Portugal has a mass of cabling, connecting with Europe as well as Africa), or en route for some form of military activity. Sometimes, they can be doing both things at once, admiral of the Fleet Gouveia e Melo said recently.
This time round, the NRP (naval patrol frigate) Figueira da Foz tracked the General Skobelev (oil tanker) and Akademik Ioffe (scientific research vessel), while the NRP Sines following the icebreaker Nikolay Chiker, as it passed through the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Azores, on its way north from (apparently) Cuba.
All three ships are now much further north as the understanding by the Armed Forces is that the intense build up in this kind of traffic (the number of Russian ships passing through Portuguese waters has quadrupled in the last three years) is far from positive.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
