Fears of a new Cold War stand-off grew last night after two Russian nuclear submarines were spotted patrolling off the coast of America.
The rare sighting has raised fears in the Pentagon that the Kremlin is taking a more aggressive stance against Washington.
It was the first time since the early 1990s that the Russians have sailed submarines as close as 200 miles off the US coastline.
The patrols – involving two Akula class nuclear-powered attack subs – come as Moscow tries to shake off the embarrassment of a failed missile test in the Arctic last month.
Some defence experts believe Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the incursion as a sabre-rattling attempt to re-assert Russia’s military relevance.
One of Russia's largest Soviet-built nuclear submarines, an Akula, similar to the vessels spotted off the U.S. coast
Two years ago, Mr Putin ordered the resumption of Cold War-style flights of nuclear-capable bombers across the Atlantic in what was seen as a largely symbolic gesture to emphasise Russia’s military might.
‘It’s the military trying to demonstrate that they are still a player in Russian political and economic matters,’ submarine warfare analyst Norman Polmar told the New York Times.
‘I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the US coast in about 15 years,’ he added.
The path of the rogue subs has been closely tracked by the Americans.
‘Any time the Russian Navy does something so out of the ordinary it is cause to worry,’ said a senior US Defence Department official.
However, a Russian general brushed off US concerns last night, calling the patrol ‘routine.’
‘I don’t know if there is any news in this for anyone. The fleet shouldn’t sit on its hands and be idle,’ said Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of staff of the Russian armed forces.
‘Long voyages of Russian submarines, this is a normal process,’ he added.
The episode has echoes of the Cold War era when both countries regularly sent submarines to patrol off each other’s coasts to track movements of underwater fleets and lie in readiness for war.
But the Russian Navy has rarely taken on missions far from its home ports after the fall of the Soviet Union left the military in shambles.
One of the submarines remained off the eastern US yesterday, while the other reportedly travelled south towards Cuba.
The White House remained tight-lipped over the patrols, although President Obama may have raised the issue when Russian President Dmitri Medvedev called him on Tuesday , ostensibly to wish him a happy birthday.
The Akulas are capable of carrying topedoes for attacking other submarines and ships as well as missiles for land or sea targets.
However, they are not equipped to launch intercontinental nuclear warheads.
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