The head of Nato has mocked Russia’s navy, citing a “limping” submarine that experienced a reported fuel leak as indicative of a decline in Moscow’s maritime power.
Mark Rutte’s comments came after Nato said on Thursday that a French Navy frigate was tracking an unnamed Russian submarine that had surfaced near Brittany. The vessel was later identified as the Novorossiysk, a diesel-powered attack submarine which is part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Moscow says the vessel, which entered service in 2014, can carry Kalibr cruise missiles. It has a crew of up to 50 and is approximately 70 metres long.
The Dutch authorities said that the submarine was being towed in the North Sea after suffering a reported fuel leak in the Strait of Gibraltar at the end of last month. At a Nato event in Slovenia, Rutte said that the submarine’s troubles were symbolic of what he called the pitiful state of Russia’s navy.
“Now, in effect, there is hardly any Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean left. There’s a lone and broken Russian submarine limping home from patrol. What a change from the 1984 Tom Clancy novel The Hunt for Red October. Today, it seems more like the hunt for the nearest mechanic,” he said.
The Hunt for Red October was made into a film in 1990
ALAMY
A Russian Telegram channel that publishes purported security leaks said last month that fuel had been leaking into the hold, raising the risk of an explosion. They claimed this malfunction had forced the submarine to surface. However, Russia’s Black Fleet denied Novorossiysk had experienced technical problems, saying that it had surfaced in the English Channel to comply with international sailing protocols while returning from deployment in the Mediterranean.
A UK defence source said it was routine for Russian submarines to surface when passing through the Channel as part of “innocent passage” conventions.
Analysts say the submarine may have been carrying out intelligence gathering tasks or the transportation of personnel or equipment through the strait, the only maritime link between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.
• Putin’s navy in dire straits as its last carrier faces scrapheap
Moscow’s navy has been depleted by Ukrainian missiles and naval drones since the start of Russia’s all-out invasion, including the sinking of the Moskva cruiser, the fleet’s flagship, in 2022. Russia’s only aircraft carrier could also be scrapped in another blow to Moscow’s shaky standing as a naval force.
The Admiral Kuznetsov, the sole surviving Soviet aircraft carrier, has been in dock in the Arctic port of Murmansk for repairs and refitting since 2017. That work has been suspended pending a decision on whether to invest more funds or send it to the scrapyard, according to sources cited in July by Izvestia, a Russian newspaper. In 2017, it was dubbed Russia’s “ship of shame” by Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary at the time, after belching black smoke as it sailed through the Channel.