NATO Secretary General Mocks Russian Submarine Disabled in the English Channel

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte mocked the Russian submarine that was reportedly disabled in the English Channel. “Currently, in essence, there is no Russian naval presence left in the Mediterranean Sea. Only one disabled Russian submarine, limping back home after a patrol. This is not the hunt for ‘Red October’ as in Tom Clancy’s 1984 novel. Today, it resembles a nearby mechanic's hunt more,” Rutte joked during a speech at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly session in Slovenia, as reported by Reuters.

Clancy's novel tells the story of a Soviet captain who decides to steal a Soviet submarine for the Americans. On October 11, the Netherlands' Ministry of Defense announced that Dutch naval forces had escorted the Novorossiysk and the tugboat Yakov Grebelsky in the North Sea, suspecting that the submarine was being towed.

For its part, the Russian Black Sea Fleet stated that the Novorossiysk submarine had exited the French coast to comply with navigation rules in the English Channel after performing missions in the Mediterranean, carrying out a “planned inter-naval transit.”