you watch the deputies from berlin of next close up investigates, a suspicious ship movements in the baltic sea thought to be signs of russian espionage. i'll be back in the top of the hour with more broad news. i can see the creaking common rub up against you in touch you. that's how the bond he's going to be. that's why i love his job, right? because i've got used to living with the living and dividing together. peters at the right to say elephant century happening rescuing little giants. i see here the elephant ninety's in the notes of can you tell september 25th on d. w. not far from copenhagen. a russian ship is making its way from st. petersburg across

the baltic sea disability, i called is no ordinary research vessel. it is not simply explore secrets and oceans. it has a secret admission. a mission that has put the military and intelligence services in europe on an alert. the danish military does not like the ship out of it signed on board the suppose the research vessel armed soldiers. what is the mission of the severe yackel of the baltic sea has become the theatre of a new cold war here below the water on the sea bed. europe is vulnerable. and

that's where the central modern infrastructure is located pipelines, data cables, power lines. if they are destroyed, gas and electricity supplies will be cut off. that would be a catastrophe. millions of households depend on them. intelligent surfaces, like germany's b, n, d r, nervous, they're keeping a very close eye on russian activities. if you're missing faster and us and it's not just the war and ukraine that has shown that like russia is willing and able to use violence, escape by the ends of in violence against the property, right? the violence against infrastructure. you wouldn't even have to spine to propose sabotaged operations to file for we consider the danger to be very real. this is not something abstract will be facing in 10 or 20 years time. then it was the pace

of which russia is raising tensions, and speeding up measures to make it militarily capable of acting against the west. means we have good reason to take a very concrete look at this trend of espionage and sabotage and concrete. these constitute an important part of this threat more than 70 research vessels, most of which answer to the russian ministry of defense. they have sensitive technology on board, such as so in ours huge radar systems or even laboratories, some items. it's not really sure. and the on the one hand, of course, and supply and communication can help in possibly making preparations, but acts of sabotage moses. on the other hand, they are checking out military structures or particularly this too is about communications. you one. but this is also about ships, comments and supplements, and it is about energy funds, which can also be subject to sabotage advertising. it's about pipelines, pipelines,

to the growing underwater threat is not only directed at germany. nato has sent off its own intelligence unit. the aim is to provide more security for underwater infrastructure. lieutenant general hon. span of m on was temporarily recalled from retirement for his expertise as good slice. so typically there are 2 strategic areas that russia has continued to invest in without interruption. since the end of the cold war as, as iron sites, one is the nuclear sector was, was the other is the under water sector. noticeable spending here has continued unabated, and this shows the importance of moscow attaches to that sector, visit the item, most gold and $1.00. oh boy. by mister the c bed would be an important theater of war. this is where europe is vulnerable to russia. has obviously always realized this you ever see,

so we knew that there are a number of russian ships, classic ships that can serve both civilian and military purposes, ocean. so i can, these are all ships as our prospects with the words academic work professor will begin. so it can be equipped with measurement technologies such as high resolution, acoustic sensors, for underwater video systems would all what we've done for. so it'd be used which kind of course also be used to pinpoint cables and pipelines and pipelines cutting . so they are ready if it comes down to it, it's designed for the info defendant. the automatic identification system can be used to monitor shipping activities. routes can be tracked online in real time. we can see that a russian research vessel is approaching the academics kapinsky. how is it equipped and how close can we get relief? the port of rocks stopped early in the morning. the ship is due to pass less than 10 nautical miles off the coast. suddenly it appears in front of us.

the car pinsky is old, but it clearly has special capabilities at stern. we can see a huge capstone that can be used to lower measuring equipment into the c one. not the only ones keeping a close eye on the vessel, just a few 100 meters away. a german police ship is telling it. suppose the research decimals, such as the academic cop in ski, no longer sale, underscored through the baltic sea. they are shadowed. we don't go unnoticed on either a police launch approaches the we are coming on board to make checks of the deal as it was. the reason is you were accompanying this russian ship and recording it on film model to

everyone out here seems to be jittery. the mere fact that we were near the car pinsky alarmed the police who took our personal details. the ship continues on its way. only people who have been on board such research vessels really know what happens below deck. we want to find them. we search crew list, seafaring, job portals and social media. after a long search, we find a former crew member of the seminary alcohol, of willing to talk to us. that was the ship on who's that we had observed armed soldiers. the men now lives in the u. k. his work as a see man on the research ship ended shortly before the war against ukraine began. it's the 1st time he has spoken to a journalist about his time on board. although he has left russia,

he does not want to be identified and his own voice has been replaced. he is worried about his family, who still live in russia. after all, he's sharing military secrets. the $5.00 and $6.00 are close, and we need to like these exact get low speed when they looking at the c bed. that's always an indication that they're doing the real work. and the spyware should be an odd job, but the varnished, they don't want people to know when they working vendors to send, if the ship is just drifting and the current stuff, the most of that means the engine is switched off, and then they're using this. so now and that will have to switch off all ambient noise charge. he shows us videos that he shot himself on the city every yackel if he worked and lived here for months at a time. he was allowed to move around freely with some of the rooms on the ship were off limits to him. most of the time,

the severe yackel and captains position tracking system switched off. he tells us so as to go on detected if possible. but one of the russian research vessels doing exactly alas for anything detected on the sea bed, whether in internet, cable or a power line is a strategic enemy object. if you destroyed in the event of war, you have an advantage. there stood just one in full time the direct your function of the research vessel system is therefore to scan to c bed and supply this information to the military to about like 1st day. and we're going to discover even more about this research vessel. as we follow the city we, you all call this journey and find out that it's name is associated with an unprecedented case of sabotage. concerning a gas pipeline to goes electrical here. the ball to connect or was built in estonia in 2018. it was intended to make

a sonia independent of russian gas for the but then last fall came this announcement that caused a year after the nord stream pipeline bombings. finland confirmed this week that it is investigating a rupture and a sub c gas pipeline. that stretches all the way to estonia. on the morning of october, 8th 2023. it became clear that parts of the pipeline were completely destroyed. the finish all sorties launched an investigation. as a book connecting us to frank boston on hong kong, the focus of the preliminary investigation was on the phone call and registered vessel a new new polar bear. what am i misspoke and it's minute. we have also investigated a significantly large area of the survey, and by the end of this i can find a fairly large object close to the damage site to the color, then it is all on it. and then if i'm anyway being a toy, missed the navy pulled the object out early this morning to the us. yeah, yeah. well that it's an anchor with the dimensions in meters of 2.5 by 2 noise by

one of what we get a thought box, you get a diode, see me a tree. the anchor weighs almost 6 metric tons. the tiny ship it belongs to is this one new new polar bear? the investigators still don't know exactly what happened during its journey, but we can reconstructed in part. on october 6th, 2023. the best the left russian exclaimed of cleaning, grabbed. a storm blew up while traveling at full speed, the ship dropped its centre, dragging it more than 200 kilometers along the sea bed with it. later, there was a huge leak in the pipeline. 3 data cables were also damaged. neither the chinese ministry of foreign affairs nor the shipping company involved responded to our questions. aging has since submitted the new new polar bear cause the devastation,

allegedly by mistake. the investigation is ongoing. stephane clue, guy is a naval architect. he is also worked on the case. he finds china's claim that the anchor dropped by accident observed. as an ongoing is an anchor which is pure and mechanical engineering. that means to put it bluntly does the cancel the whole. you have a joint angle winch with the chain attached just and there is a chain step on and a chain lock at the front. prevent the chain from accidentally slipping out. stop. but if you want to dropping and got, you have to mechanically remove this very bulky chain stuff up. now you have to remove the chain lock and operate the ankle when jackie should be out of that would wake up everyone on board. the chain links are very heavy and really rumble faster . does that square with the accident? terry? asserting all states completely out of the question. from a technical point of view, it's completely impossible. basically. i think unless they were on magic mushrooms or whatever, you could only do this in a controlled and conscious mental,

definitely called the most money. so what actually happened? rumors start to emerge that russian might have something to do with the case. we decided to find out which ships were in the area before the accident. conventional tracking data isn't any help, or some should switch off their systems to remain undetected. we notice from our environment. is there any other way together with journalists from norway, estonia, the netherlands, and the u. k. we come up with a solution. the coating, the morse code messages sent in the area a russian research vessel send out weather reports every 6 hours. they are transmitted by morse code and contain location data. we analyze all the morse code signals in the area. this message sent near the baltic connector belongs to a ship. we knew the secretary yackel of the ship with the soldiers on board.

in the weeks leading up to the destruction of the baltic connector, its position data keeps on appearing to the left and to the right of the pipeline. in other words, it passes over it several times whether the ship had anything to do with the destruction cannot be proven beyond a doubt. certainly its activities in the area are striking. from now on, we can use morse code messages to track the secret research fleet to follow its movements. even if it's aim is to remain on identified. the data analysis will take months. german research vessels also collect information with completely different goals, but similar technology. but then up as part of germany's maritime and hydrographic agency and carries out surveys that are important for an article charts. for example. particularly shallow areas, abnormalities on the sea, dead or wrecks are examined by captain unbiased cheese and his crew of exec 6

of new. if he is come on succeed today, they are surveying assigned using so nora technology here on my mind and i said we have a multi being co sound office, which means that means we can survey a 2 meters up to see ben benny's, that's fine. if you can see small stones line that they're really not big so we can see all the foreign bodies rising out, pound talk online on the see, then you can the i can a den and collects information to warrant other ships of any danger and makes it public, but of course the special capabilities of research vessels can also be used in other ways. a russian research vessel, the going, let's, uh, appeared very close to here last year. what was it doing? we show the captain of the dent in the course. it took on october 15 to

2023. the ship is exact. around near the german island of fame on for over a day. in some places it remained stationary for hours as what does it oh, it's not looks like a classic sense cost. it quite stuck in principle, it's crossing a position with flat intersections and keeps on passing over its with sets and variations which gives us um and this indicates that in principle it is looking for something in the area of those intersections like these of this nit phones and also, but what exactly is so interesting there my condo to the ultimate, you can take a picture at the c bed that and with mountain, so not technology. you can also detect things that a much smaller than a meta in dimension. you can decline out. it's me to a mental health meaning what kind of areas this as soon as, yeah,

this isn't done. so something read, exercise area. in other words, when nato submarines generally dive and not to what it told me, it is impossible to say exactly what the gory gladto was doing. but it was surely no coincidence that the ship was in the submarine exercise area. if it was on funds, as long as the technical sensors on the sufferings are of particular interest to russia, how do they communicate to? how do they controlled or weapon systems? and all this technical data can be collected in these areas. and we assume that this is exactly what these research ships are doing. and actually if we can all of us off to our informants to worked on the superior call of also travel to submarine diving areas. thus we agree with terms of what we did was to wait until a supper and had dived as deep as it could and done it. then i'll ship tried to find it. it's like a game of hide and seek, but the military scale most monday try to find the exact border way. you can still

identify the submarines with the same special equipment that a nato ship has. i know that was the reason we went to these areas only in these, it could be ticket funds in the extensible research vessels are systematically spying in the baltic sea in their sites. submarine areas, cables and underwater pipelines. hidden infrastructure that only rarely comes to the attention of the public in the way that it did in 2022 and they know several leaks of being discovered in the north stream. one and 2 pipelines from which gas is flowing into the baltic. sea is point the bombing of the north stream pipelines . these attacks in particular, illustrated the vulnerability of the marine infrastructure. hundreds of thousands of tons of russian gas were escaping from the pipelines gas which was meant to be destined for europe. it is still not clear who was behind the blast.

the nature wants to be better prepared in the future and exercise maneuvers under way of the pharaoh islands in the north atlantic. military forces from 3 countries are training how to protect pipelines and cables of the german ship, though now is leading the maneuver after the fact. as long as the current traffic situation is that we still have an offshore the best. so coming into woods towards havasu and the, the host of the crew normally searches for mines key and as onto the we're testing our equipment to see if we can do more than making detection. and you have to know as a contribution to need to as our other neighboring country and sort of to simply make the walter safer in this day and age. some of them into work. and we can, as you've seen, this is leading to we have various toolboxes on some equipment. so in our systems, under water, drones, etc, that we could deployed to safeguard critical underwater infrastructure. who was,

i can put some things that it would certainly be a win win situation is under a given to us. so the training takes place on one of the other ships, the french se fee. here they are practicing using an underwater drone. the drone searches the murky c bed transmitting the images to the observation room in real time. the one of the saying is the training of the parent toes, so that on the screen on this, on all they can, they can analysis and do an analysis are and, and get the defense between a normal rock or something most suspicious. in the future, the operators should, for example, be able to detect sabotaged cables for explosive devices on pipelines more quickly

. while the crew continues to work on the bridge, a message suddenly arrives. a russian ship has been spotted. the presenters seem to have fits us from the direction both, even if they are a civilian and so that we can reflect the reports it so the alternative to just get the motion picture. and so if one day that the ship is i don't know targeted far and anything we can provide some info about mistrusted see, is growing. but even though the navy is improving its skills here, it does not yet have a specific mission to protect critical infrastructure. the legal situation in germany is complicated, even when it comes to who is allowed to track and still in the freshman ships,

and where the sees divided into various stones and which different all sorties are responsible. under german law. german powers begins here in the exclusive economic zone. the so called easy. the federal police are responsible here within the 12 miles zone, where powers are greater. it is the police forces of the respective federal states . in both phones, the navy provides support when russian spies ships appear. after all, the navy is indispensable for protecting critical infrastructure at c. and yet, they still do not have a legal mandates to do so. might interest you to say my wishes? simply clarity, a clear mission, clear assignment of responsibilities and in particular, there is the speed factor. we need to be fast in these areas. so we need to have

a clean agreement and chain of command. this is no one to leave the non certainty as to whether they are allowed to act or not. how do they go to this? after all, the challenges facing german security agencies are enormous. unfortunately, you can't defend seen under warranty infrastructure and you can't see it in the same way that you can on land us. and we shouldn't give credence to the belief that you can precisely monitor and protect every single major of cable to see the thing kind of steps. so if somebody says, operators also fear possible sabotage above the water in the large wind farms in the north and baltic seas. in the future, the wind farms are expected to generate the equivalent of $300.00 nuclear power plants. the select tricity is intended to make europe independent from russian gas,

and that seems to be attracting rushes attention. winds farm operators are constantly spouting ships by their facilities, and they are nervous offices on the truck. so when, when such ships have appeared in this kind of situation in the past, you know, they have their tracking system switched off, then you cannot see them on the system. it's nice because the in then suddenly there's a visual contact to contact us. and the situations create on a certain t, especially in the context of gas pipelines and the alleged accident for acts of sabotage that we've seen. the simple charge will have to do because they know private investors shy away from risks, including the risk of possible sabotage. will develop a key on certain t factor a lou and couldn't meet investors, start hesitating and stuff so that could ultimately slow down the energy transition . or in the worst case scenario. mean it didn't happen, natal, the some, some if i even got mixed up on unknown to us at the time of that interview, a russian ship had appeared in this wind farm. our card is aust one off the german

baltic sea island does include in last year. it was the glory glass on the ship that it seemed suspicious to us in our research vessel that 6 sags through the submarine exercise area. we discovered this from security sources. the ship only changed course when the german federal police called upon it to do so. shortly afterwards, a photographer took this picture. there were also armed forces on board this research vessel. we asked the russian government about the going the, let's us journey and about the other alleged research vessels, but do not receive an answer. but our data analysis is bearing fruit. the more signals revealed rates that are supposed to remain secret since the beginning of the war in ukraine. we have counted dozens of trans, it's by we search vessels through the baltic sea. we can also identify more than 60

particularly suspicious passages through the north sea and both succeed 6 ad courses and calling grades. for example. we also find conspicuous movements in the 12 milestones of nato countries. in other words, very close to the coast. nearly much look is a maritime law expert at keel university. she believes a more robust approach could be adopted, especially in the 12 milestone. my kind of young, we could hinder their activities, ask them to leave the coastal waters, and in my view, you must ask them to do that philosophy. is it also possible to take action against the alleged research vessels? further off the coast, the authorities currently have little power are there. there are no appropriate laws yet. this is where most of the, especially striking journeys take place. germany is lagging behind when it comes to clear regulation. tradition,

i'm the i get the impression we haven't progressed as quickly as we should of other countries are already much further ahead of if you 5, but i don't see any real movement towards creating new legal foundations. there are draft, there are discussions in parliament, but relatively little comes out of that. but we like to finish before it political players involved in these discussions also continue to see security gaps. the listen now and we have to learn to re organize things. but when you try to get down to brass tacks, i just hope that everyone involved is prepared to make sacrifices in certain cases so that this protection is guaranteed, i mean, even give us what's given the structure with its many responsibilities here at the federal system where everyone does their own thing, all is all that has proved this value before, but today, almost 80 years after the 2nd world war, we have a completely different security situation. other methods for the click fully on

those. if we want to protect ourselves against despots, we need much simpler avenue. all can get dorothy in front of the vegas. the various ministries responsible in germany, say that legal changes are being discussed. but when and if they will be implemented is completely open. while germany is arguing about responsibilities, russia is continuing its systematic espionage. and the last more signal from the city re, i'll call it for sent in june, decoded. the signal reveals a series of numbers. that series of numbers told us its position, which was the northwest of denmark. cheer for seberio called again appeared near a gas pipeline. our analysis shows that once again, it was crossing back and forth over at this time. it is the euro pipe,

which runs from norway to northern germany and supplies millions of households with gas. the super y'all, cove continues its mission, making surveillance courses, spying on the sea bed. completely unhindered. the from the front lines, under the watchful eyes of rational, sorry. just in the year of the war and ukraine. gen that's shown lying in repose, it from the russian occupied dumbass regions. it there's to do what else to do was to stop by with murder and you've got another thing about the ran look at it will usually an accessible to western media must do this war of attrition.

the rushes war in ukraine on person's front line starts october 26th on d, w. the. for some people talking about sex contraception and pregnancy can be uncommon double. and in many cultures, even to both the internet has long been a place where people can ask questions anonymously. and nowadays they have more and more apps. and they, i've had bought specifically geared towards texting the sensitive meadows. but can we trust the information and what happens to a data? hey, i uphold apps can be great educational tools, but often times the content is offered exclusively in english and a 1000 k to 2 other languages, a dialect. so it's awesome. the people who need resources knows why screwed it from them, including people in more rural regions. mean apple is an app design to understand

some of the.