What do we know about the Russian ‘spy ship’ tracked in UK waters?

The Kremlin is suspected of deploying the vessel to stalk the seabed, gathering intelligence that could be used in acts of sabotage.

Transcript

00:00What do we know about the Russian spy ship seen in European waters?

00:08A Russian vessel was pursued by British warships when it sailed through the English Channel

00:13last week.

00:15This is what the UK defence minister said.

00:17Let me be clear.

00:20This is a Russian spy ship used for gathering intelligence and mapping the UK's critical

00:28underwater infrastructure.

00:30The ship, known as Yantar, on paper only carries out oceanographic research, but it belongs

00:37to Moscow's defence ministry and Western officials believe it's mainly used for deep-sea espionage.

00:43Last week, Yantar was first detected around 83km off the British coast.

00:49We tracked her movements over the following days and found she had sailed through the

00:53English Channel before continuing towards the Kattegat Strait between Denmark and Sweden,

00:58suggesting she was heading back to base in St. Petersburg.

01:01This is not unusual.

01:03Russian ships commonly use this route to head back to their base and the ship didn't break

01:08any international rules.

01:10But it is believed that Yantar could be mapping critical undersea infrastructure such as communications

01:16cables and gas pipelines.

01:19Gas pipelines have recently been severed in suspected acts of sabotage.

01:23Yantar is well-equipped to map undersea infrastructure.

01:26It can hover over a specific location.

01:29On board, it has human-carrying submarines that can reach 6,000m below water.

01:35There are also deep-sea robots tethered to the ship that can deposit or retrieve objects

01:40from the seabed.

01:41Naval experts told us that the ship is well-known to European authorities, but the UK's firm

01:46response suggests governments are increasingly nervous about Yantar's operations and the

01:52potential that the intelligence it gathers could be used in future acts of sabotage.