Russia secretly acquired Western technology between 2013 and 2024 to build an underwater surveillance system in the Arctic designed to protect its nuclear submarine fleet, according to an investigation published Thursday by The Washington Post in collaboration with European news organizations.
According to financial records, court documents and Western security officials, Russia purchased sonars, underwater robots, and fiber-optic cables, as well as research vessels and other sophisticated technology worth more than $50 million from companies including Norwegian defense giant Kongsberg, Japanese tech conglomerate NEC, and U.S. sonar manufacturer EdgeTech to build a sensor surveillance system dubbed "Harmony."
Purchases were also made from companies in Sweden, Italy, the United Kingdom and other NATO member countries.
Russia carried out the acquisitions through Cyprus-based firm Mostrello Commercial Ltd. and other companies. Court records show that Mostrello, a front for Russia's military- industrial complex, purchased tens of millions of dollars' worth of sensitive equipment.
Alexander Shnyakin, a Russian-Kyrgyz businessman and head of Mostrello Commercial Ltd., was sentenced by a German court in September to four years and ten months in prison for illegally exporting sensitive military technology to Russia through his company.
His case is under appeal.
Harmony strengthens Russia's ability to get its nuclear-armed submarines "in and out of port without being detected, harassed, or interdicted," Bryan Clark, a former senior U.S. naval official and submarine officer who now serves as the director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, told the news outlets.
"This is Russia's effort to reduce America's ability to go in and surveil areas around submarine bases and trail their submarines from point of deployment."
Doug McGowen, head of sales for Massachusetts-based EdgeTech, said the company "always performs a great deal of due diligence when working with our customers" and that Mostrello "was not on any denied parties' lists" at the time and "did not present any 'red flags.'"
Vice Admiral Nils Stensones, the director of Norway's intelligence service, said Russia has worked to establish "complex procurement networks with legitimate European companies as contact points," a practice that "conceals parts of the supply chain and obscures the Russian end-user."
The Arctic is a strategically critical domain for submarine operations because it allows countries with northern coasts (like Russia) to operate under the ice cap, making submarines harder to detect.
The region links to Russia's "bastion" strategy: protecting nuclear-armed submarines and ensuring second-strike capability.
For NATO and other Arctic states, Russia's bolstered submarine and undersea monitoring capabilities complicate anti-submarine warfare and maritime domain awareness.
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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