Russian bathyscaphe, on whose deck 14 people died on Tuesday, was said by the Russian media to have been designed to cut submarine Internet cables. The submarine is now based at Severomorska in the Murmansk region of northwest Russia. The Kremlin said earlier on Wednesday that some of the information, including the functions of the bathyscaphe, are a state secret.

President Vladimir Putin canceled an event due to the disaster and met Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu instead. According to TASS, he ordered him to fly to Severomorska and arrange for a thorough investigation of the causes of the fire on the spot, as well as the provision of survivors’ assistance. “When I return, personally report to me,” Putin ordered. The President’s spokesman on Wednesday said some information about the accident is a state secret.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who had arrived in Severomorska to investigate the incident, was not much more common on Wednesday. He said that the fire broke out on the scientific-research deep-sea apparatus of the Russian naval fleet in planned research in the Russian territorial waters of the Barents Sea. “14 crew members died. The others were saved, “he said, without specifying the number of rescuers.

E-mails and billions of dollars go through submarine cables
According to him, the people on board were “unique military specialists - highly qualified professionals who did important research on the Earth’s hydrosphere.”

The Russian press also came up with information about the alleged submarine function. According to RBK and Novaja Gazeta, it was supposed to be an AS-12 vessel equipped with a nuclear propulsion unit designed to cut undersea cables. They keep the Internet running around the world. However, both Russian media outlets cite anonymous sources.

The AS-12 submarine first appeared in 2003, but its particular equipment was and still is largely subject to rumors. The Russian government has been doing great secrets around her, she writes, among other things, the Business Insider server , referring to Radio Free Europe. For example, in 2012, the submarine participated in a survey aimed at confirming Russia’s demands for expanding the borders of its Arctic continental shelf. According to official statements at that time, she collected samples from a depth of 2500 meters. Normal submarines can only dive to 600 meters.

American and other Western experts have warned for a long time that the Russians are moving around fiber-optic cables through which millions of emails, text messages and other trillions of dollars from international transactions go through daily.