The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation created the Harmony system for spying on NATO: kilometers of cables and locators

Underwater maritime space seems to be the only area where you can hide from external surveillance and it seems that the Russian Federation has used it for crimes against Western countries, according to a video of the German TV channel ARD1. The video shows the Russian research vessel Aquarius, formerly known as the Meerkatze and owned by Germany. The vessel cruises in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway and has all the capabilities to collect data on NATO warships.

The actions of the Russian Federation in the Arctic were studied by the media of Germany (NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung), France (Le Monde), as well as the team of the Russian Secrets project and international investigators of the ICIJ. It turned out that the special services of the Russian Federation created the "Harmony" surveillance system, which was called "the Russian ear under water. " The project lasted from 2013 to 2021.

At the same time, the Russians bought equipment from Western companies, and this was not hindered by the sanctions imposed after 2014 due to the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea, the video explains. The investigators described some details of the creation, structure and operation of the Harmony surveillance system of the Russian Federation. The estimated cost of the project, which lasted almost 10 years, is also indicated — 50 million dollars.

The number of countries that provided relevant technologies is about 10 (Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Canada, etc. ). First, the Russians purchased the equipment. We are talking about three ships, Aquarius (there are photos showing the renaming), Aurelia and Northern Wave, which were purchased by Mostrello, a company associated with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

In addition, to bypass sanctions, the Russian Federation purchased sonars (Germany, Inoma company), hydrophones (Canada), robots for work on the seabed (Britain), equipment for laying cables (various EU countries), fiber optic cables. After that, the ships began laying cables and installing sensors. The investigators explained that this is evidenced by the geolocation data: the ships moved slowly between the points of the trajectory, and this indicates that certain works were being performed.

In this way, the Russian Federation created a system of wiretapping. The task that "Harmony" can perform: monitors the movement of submarines and NATO ships, protects Russian nuclear facilities, transmits data to coastal command posts. The data is transmitted to the command post in Murmansk. "In this case, we are talking about Russia's nuclear strike or counterattack capability — or its defense. And it is a completely different story if you look at it from a European perspective.

After all, this activity of Russia is clearly directed against us," the investigators concluded in the ARD1 video. It should be noted that in the autumn of 2025, Britain announced the disclosure of another special operation of the Russian Federation, in which British citizens were involved. It turned out that the Russians had recruited three people who were supposed to perform the tasks of a "foreign state".