Russia has secretly acquired Western technology to protect its nuclear submarine fleet. This is reported in an article on the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists).
The corresponding investigation called "Russian secrets" was conducted by the German NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung in cooperation with nine information partners. Allegedly, it allegedly reveals previously unknown details of a secret procurement network under the Harmony program. It is noted that the investigation is based on court documents, interviews with intelligence officials and leaked records previously obtained by ICIJ.
"Russia is using sensitive high-tech equipment that it has secretly acquired from European, American and Asian companies to protect its nuclear submarine fleet in the Arctic, according to a new cross-border investigation, which ... revealed that for about a decade numerous defense companies and marine suppliers have been selling sonar, underwater robots, fiber optic cables, and also, research vessels and other sophisticated technologies worth more than $ 50 million to a Cypriot organization secretly linked to a Russian defense contractor,"the publication says.
The equipment for the Russian "Harmony" surveillance system uses a network of seabed sensors to detect enemy submarines approaching Russian nuclear weapons, located in the Barents Sea near the northern coast of Russia, the authors write. "Officials consider the exact location of the Harmony system classified. But by tracking the equipment purchased in Cyprus, an international team of journalists found clues about its location in the waters off the coast of Murmansk, Novaya Zemlya and Alexandra Land in the Arctic Ocean, where the sensors are apparently located in the shape of an arc," the article says.
The leaked documents of the Cypriot company Mostrello show that more than 50 suppliers, mostly European, participated in its business deals, which provided sensitive components for the Harmony system, including an underwater drone capable of operating at depths up to almost 3 thousand meters, hundreds of kilometers of fiber optic cables and vessels that allegedly posed as commercial or research when performing installation tasks for the Russian military.
The investigation also revealed that, in addition to Mostrello, the procurement network included more than a dozen shell companies registered in Seychelles, Belize and The British Virgin Islands, "with the clear intention of hiding its true ownership and ties with Russia," the publication emphasizes.