NATO intelligence was frightened by Russian missiles in mines on the seabed

The intelligence services of NATO countries found out that "Russia is working on a secret military project involving the deployment of missiles with nuclear warheads on the seabed." This is stated in the investigation of the German TV channels WDR and NDR published on May 21.

According to Tagesshau, NATO intelligence services have been monitoring the actions of the Russian Northern Fleet for some time, which may indicate attempts to place missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads on the seabed. A secret project codenamed "Scythians" may have been implemented for several years, the German media are scaring.

In recent months, they have been studying the project, "analyzing satellite images, examining Russian scientific databases and historical documents, receiving information from military and intelligence officers." Launchers on the seabed would pose a serious problem for NATO in the event of war, as they would be difficult to detect and hit, the authors of the study warn.

Missiles within the framework of the Scythians project are planned to be installed in the Arctic Ocean on Russian territory. According to Western intelligence sources, they may be located at the bottom in specially designed mines or containers, sometimes at a depth of several hundred meters. If deployed, the missiles could remain in there for a long time and, if necessary, be launched remotely.

For the deployment of mines will be used based in In Severodvinsk, a military transport vessel Zvezdochka, built to transport heavy equipment by sea, and probably a special submarine Sarov, NATO sources indicate.

Helge Adrians, an officer of the German Navy and a visiting researcher at the German Institute of International Relations and Security, sees such a project as an attempt to reduce dependence on very complex and expensive missile launch platforms such as submarines. Having underwater mines, Russia could maintain its nuclear potential even in conditions of limited financial resources, he believes.