YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, October 25. /TASS/. The Swedish Foreign Ministry has not contacted Moscow via diplomatic channels over the situation with a submarine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Saturday.

Lavrov told Vesti v Subbotu programme on the Rossiya-1 TV channel that he had no idea what submarine was spotted off the coast of Sweden.

"I saw some image rotated on TV. I am not sure it looks like a submarine," the minister said adding that it could be a log or something else.

Lavrov said that the Russian Defence Ministry had already made a statement on the issue.

"We had information that a Dutch submarine could be there at that time, which later went to an Estonian port," Lavrov said.

He also said that he was puzzled with the Swedish media frenzy over the phantom submarine.

The minister said only media alleged that the submarine was Russian. "The Swedish authorities have not confirmed this," he added.

The hunt for the submarine began last Friday and the Svenska Dagbladet daily even claimed the submarine was in distress.

In the meantime a Russian Defence Ministry official earlier said that “the search for a Russian submarine is so unsuccessful because there is none.