Russian ships in the Baltic - zigzagging and spying

Dozens of Russian ships in the Baltic and North Seas are officially on "research" missions. But they also have military crews and collect data on NATO infrastructure and submarines, a journalistic investigation reveals.

By sheer chance, in October 2023, the German police found the right clue: the shadow of a vessel appeared on the radar of a patrol boat in the middle of a windmill field in the Baltic Sea, in front of the German island of Rigen.
The transmitters with which the ship reports its position to others were turned off.
And that was obviously not accidental, it is an established practice. The vessel accidentally discovered by the German police, the research vessel Goridlezhan, belongs to the Russian military's secret Deep Sea Research Program (GUGI).
The ship's crew consists not only of scientists and sailors, but also armed soldiers. Of course, there are also sensitive devices for examining the seabed. The German police ordered the crew of the "Goridledzhan" to immediately leave German territorial waters, which the Russian ship did.

Violation of territorial waters
The mysterious trajectory of the Russian research ship is not an isolated case. Alleged research vessels keep appearing out of nowhere in the North and Baltic seas. According to official claims, they are conducting "hydrographic research".
But these ships are also used to spy on sensitive infrastructure, such as underground cables for telecommunications or energy transmission, as well as military and economic facilities, such as offshore wind farms.
According to the international research project "Russian Spy Ships", in which the German media, the public service ARD and the Zeitung newspaper participated, territorial waters are constantly threatened.
This conclusion was reached after the analysis of 400 trajectories of 72 Russian "research ships" in the time after Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022.

Suspicious navigation near sensitive objects
According to these data, Russian ships sailed at least 60 times with the automatic identification system (AIS), a device that is standard in international navigation, turned off very slowly, often in a zigzag path, stopping often and for longer in the same place. And as a rule, always near some sensitive infrastructure facilities.

An area frequently used by NATO submarines, a gas pipeline connecting Estonia and Finland, and a data transmission cable stretching from the Danish island of Bornholm to Poland are cited as potential targets for spying in the Baltics.
In the North Sea, Russian "research" ships often anchored near the Europipe gas pipeline that transports gas from Norway to the European market towards the Dutch port of Dornum.

Enemy objects

The research team came to the statements of a former sailor on board "Sibirjakov". "Anything on the sea floor, whether it's an internet or power cable, is treated as a hostile object and accurately measured and recorded," he said.
"The destruction of those facilities in case of war gives a great advantage. The direct task of those ships is therefore to precisely measure the seabed and make that data available to the army," the sailor added.
Alleged research ships are also equipped with military technology, such as sonar and radar, and some, like the "Gorigledžan", also have devices for launching smaller submarines and underwater drones.

A very specific danger

The director of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) Bruno Kahl is concerned about increased Russian espionage activities in the North and Baltic Seas.
"It's about the speed with which Russia is intensifying its espionage activities and raising its military readiness towards the West," says Kahl.
In recent decades, Russia has invested heavily in the sector of underwater combat readiness. This includes not only the submarine fleet, but also other weapons, such as small submarines, underwater drones and special divers.
The Baltic NATO members estimate that the current danger from Russia is so great that they are bringing former generals back from retirement. One of them is Hans-Werner Wirmann. "The goal of those activities is to do a lot of damage and disappear unnoticed," he said.
The goal is the timely detection of potentially dangerous vessels and their better monitoring. Currently, it is very difficult to find out who is responsible for a cut cable or a damaged gas pipeline. NATO members plan to increase the use of underwater eavesdropping devices again. And private actors, such as energy companies, could increasingly provide data on vessel movements.

"I'm waiting for good weather"

How complicated it is to track Russian spy ships, the example of "Gorigledzhan" from the beginning of the story shows. After leaving German territorial waters and the protected area of the wind farm at the request of the German police, the "research" ship headed to the area near Denmark, where NATO submarines practice.
There he sailed a zig-zag course at a remarkably slow pace for hours. When asked by the Danish Coast Guard about the reason for such sailing, the captain replied that he was "waiting for better weather".
It is assumed, however, that the ship was collecting acoustic data from submarines practicing there. It is not known whether at that moment there were submarines in those waters, which belong to the exclusive economic zone of Denmark.
It is very difficult for the affected countries to legally fight against such behavior of the Russians. The only thing possible is to increase the presence and escort the Russian vessels to show them that their activities have not gone unnoticed.
Since the beginning of 2023, German police ships have escorted Russian ships in 102 cases, and patrol ships of the German Navy have done so five times.