MOSCOW, August 12./ITAR-TASS/. US and British multirole nuclear submarines are “virtually constantly on duty” in the Barents Sea, a highly-placed source in the Russian Navy Main Staff said on Tuesday.

“American and British multirole nuclear submarines sail into the Barents Sea and attempt to reconnoiter the positions of the Northern Fleet submarines and coastal military facilities. They stay beyond the 12-mile maritime zone that constitutes Russia’s territorial waters. These are the so-called high seas where the presence of foreign ships, including submarines, is not prohibited,” the source said.

American multirole submarines are operating off Russia’s coast in the Pacific “on a permanent basis” as well, the source added.

“American nuclear submarines sail mainly into the Sea of Okhotsk and less frequently into the Barents Sea, obviously trying to monitor the activity of the Pacific Fleet’s main submarine base at Vilyuchinsk in Kamchatka,” the source said.

“French nuclear submarines do not enter our seas. We haven’t spotted them there,” he added.

The official noted that no strategic American or British nuclear submarines had been spotted off Russian coasts.

On August 7, the Northern Fleet detected a foreign submarine, presumably an American Virginia-class one, and “pushed” it out of Russia’s boundary waters. A group of surface ships and an anti-submarine plane were sent over to the area to locate the submarine.

The Navy Main Staff said “this is not the only such spotting of foreign submarines in the Barents Sea of late”.