STOCKHOLM, July 27 (Reuters) - The Swedish military is studying a video taken by shipwreck hunters who say it shows a wrecked submarine just off the eastern coast of Sweden which appears to be Russian, a spokesman said on Monday.
The discovery comes less than a year after Swedish troops and ships unsuccessfully hunted for a Russian submarine reportedly cited near Stockholm, in the country’s biggest military mobilization since the Cold War.
Swedish Armed Forces spokesman Anders Kallin did not say whether the military also believed it was a Russian submarine.
“We choose not to comment on it before we have seen more material. We will continue the analysis together with the company in the coming days,” Kallin said.
Ocean X Team, the company behind the discovery, said on its website: “It is unclear how old the submarine is and for how long it has been at the bottom of the sea, but the Cyrillic letters on the hull indicate that it is Russian.”
One of the men who discovered the submarine, Dennis Asberg, told the Expressen newspaper it looked modern. But one expert quoted by the paper said he believed it was a Russian submarine that sank in 1916.
Concerns about possible incursions by Russian submarines have increased as relations between Moscow and the West have worsened due to events in Ukraine.
During the Cold War, the navy repeatedly chased suspected Soviet submarines along its coast with depth charges.
In 1981, in an incident known as “Whiskey on the Rocks,” a Soviet nuclear Whiskey-class submarine was stranded near a naval base deep inside Swedish waters after it ran aground, causing a diplomatic standoff.
There have been many false alarms. In 1995, then-Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson said the military on several occasions thought it had detected submarines only to find many of the underwater sounds were made by minks.
In April, the Finnish military used handheld underwater depth charges as a warning against what it suspected was a submarine in waters off Helsinki.
Putin With Puppies
(01 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin hugs a Bulgarian shepherd dog -- a gift from Bulgarian Prime Minister -- after a press conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Nov. 13, 2010. He would later name the dog Buffy. (credit:Nikolay Doychinov/AFP/Getty Images)
(02 of11)
Open Image ModalRussian President Dmitry Medvedev (back) and Putin -- and a dog -- play badminton in Sochi, Russia, on Aug. 14, 2009. (credit:Dmitry Astakhov/AFP/Getty Images)
(03 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin talks to a dog in the village of Verkhniye Mondrogi in Karelia, Russia, on Aug. 18, 2001. (credit:Getty Images)
(04 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin awkwardly sits and smiles as photographers try to take photos of his dog Koni at the president's residence in Sochi, Russia, on Aug. 18, 2005. (credit:Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP/Getty Images)
(05 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin cuddles a Hungarian Puli dog as the dog's owners, then-Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany and his wife Klara Dobrev, look on, in Budapest, Hungary, on March 1, 2006. (credit:Miklos Der/AFP/Getty Images)
(06 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin gets an unexpected visited from his dog, Koni, during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in Sochi, Russia, on Jan. 21, 2007. (credit:Axel Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)
(07 of11)
Open Image ModalFormer U.S. President George Bush watches Putin play with his dog at the Bush family house in Kennebunkport, Maine, on July 1, 2007. (credit:Mikhail Klimentyev, AFP/Getty Images)
(08 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin, Medvedev, and a dog drive around in an electric buggy at the presidential residence in Sochi, Russia, onon Aug. 14, 2009. (credit:Dmitry Astakhov/AFP/Getty Images)
(09 of11)
Open Image ModalA soldier's dog leaps up to greet Putin during his visit to a Ministry of Internal Affairs division in Balashiha, Russia, on July 22, 2011. (credit:Alexey Druzhnin, AFP/Getty Images)
(10 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin pets his dog Koni before a meeting in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia, on March 3, 2004. (credit:GettyAlexander Zemlanichenko, AFP/Getty Images)
(11 of11)
Open Image ModalPutin and his pet labrador Koni attend a meeting at an undisclosed location in Russia on July 27, 2010. (credit:Alexey Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/AFP/Getty Images)
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