“Ukrainians” played bad guys in FSB’s Arctic counter-terrorist drill

Headed by FSB Lt. Gen. Stanislav Maslov, the “Laguna - Northern Lights 2023” exercise took place in Murmansk this week. While the playbook pretended all actions took place along the Northern Sea Route and in the Kara Sea, all practical exercising happened in Kola Bay, a few meters from the shores of Murmansk.

“A sabotage and reconnaissance group of Ukrainian special forces, using unmanned aerial vehicles and surface vessels, attacked one of Novatek’s modules for production of liquified natural gas (LNG) while this was under towing along the Northern Sea Route,” the Border Directorate of FSB informs.

After that, the “Ukrainian terrorists” took hostages on a drilling rig in the Kara Sea.

FSB has posted a video showing how its anti-terror forces arrive at the scene in boats and a helicopter, shooting wild against the vessel pretending to be the LNG module. Divers were put in the water from a zodiac, while other FSB fighters arrived at the rig in smaller boats.

The operation was led from the FSB Coast Guard vessel “Polyarnaya Zvezda”.

Russia plans to rapidly expand LNG production in the Arctic as pipe-gas export from the fields around the Yamal Peninsula to Europe comes to an end following Moscow’s war against Ukraine and the subsequent introduction of Western sanctions. Production facilities built in China are towed to Novatek’s yard in Belokamenka north of Murmansk for assembling on huge bares before being towed to the new grand Arctic LNG 2 project on the shores of OB Bay.

FSB informs that the exercise was a success: “The saboteurs and terrorists were liquidated.”

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