The US Coast Guard discovered a Russian vessel off the coast of Hawaii. It was in the exclusive economic zone of the USA. THe coast guard suggests that this is how Russia gathers intelligence.
The agency noted that the Coast Guard has been monitoring the Russian vessel for several weeks and is coordinating its actions with the US Department of Defense.
Such activity was also observed last year in May. At the time, retired Marine Lt. Col. Gol Kaempfer told Hawaiiʼs Khon TV station, "The tactics, techniques, and procedures that we saw in the Soviet Union during the Cold War seem to be re-emerging under the Russian banner."
Foreign warships are free to transit through the US economic zone, according to international law. However, the Russian warship was for a long time in the response zone of the Fourteenth District of the Coast Guard — 100 miles from Honolulu (almost 160 km).
The vessel in question belongs to the Soviet reconnaissance ships of project 864 of the Russian Navy and is one of the seven intelligence gathering ships of the Vishnya class according to the NATO classification, Defense brief writes. The ship is moving accompanied by a Pechenga-class Dubna tanker.