The Russian spy ship ‘Admiral Vladimirskiy’ is off the eastern coast of Scotland heading south.

The vessel, designed to conduct underwater scientific research, left the Baltic Sea earlier this month.

According to the blog PlentyofShips, the Admiral Vladmirskiy is the sole survivor of a six unit class of large scientific vessels known as Expeditionary Oceanographic Ships (EOS).

“Admiral Vladimirskiy is a very capable scientific vessel particularly in regard to underwater scientific research. Whilst not owned or operated by the highly secretive underwater surveillance & warfare unit known as the Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research (GUGI) or the PP Shirshov Institute of Oceanology whose vessels regularly collect underwater intelligence particularly near underwater cables, the Admiral Vladimirskiy’s scientific data collection is highly likely used to supplement intelligence gleaned by the GUGI & PP Shirshov scientific fleets & could be used for future surveillance mission planning.  Admiral Vladimirskiy’s future tasking is unknown at this time.”

Concerns raised over underwater security

The Admiral Vladimirskiy entered the Moray Firth on 10 November 2022. The vessel was located inside the Moray Firth Scottish Marine Region around 30 nautical miles east of Lossiemouth, home to the RAF’s Maritime Patrol Aircraft fleet, during the late afternoon and was continuing to head slowly west.

Again according to PlentyofShips, the Admiral Vladimirskiy had tracked north west, outside the UK twelve-mile limit.

“With no adverse weather reported in the region and with UK – Russia relations at an all-time low, her arrival in the Firth is of concern. As a scientific vessel with the potential to conduct covert underwater reconnaissance activity, Admiral Vladimirskiy is a Vessel-of-Interest for western Navies which are keen to understand more about Russia’s secretive underwater intelligence gathering activity therefore, it is no surprise that Admiral Vladimirskiy is being closely shadowed by the Royal Navy during her time in the Firth.”

The image at the head of the article is from the Russian military and shows the Admiral Vladimirsky during her expedition to Antarctica.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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57 COMMENTS

  2. Blimmey I didn’t think it was that cold in Scotland 😀

    Seriously, though she’s getting on a bit, built in 1975 apparently. Nevertheless, she is a threat to our underwater infrastructure. Cruising ‘slowly’ is probably what she would do if she was doing a sonar side scan of the area, although she could just be paying her respects on Rememberance Day…

    Cheers CR

  3. Would be a real shame for the Russians if she has a smoking related accident😂😂. Been a lot of them recently. I wonder what Royal Navy ship is watching her?

    • Probably and River OPV..? Wouldn’t need anything more than that. Also, our limited number of escorts are probably joining up with HMSQE right about now..?

      Cheers CR

      • Why is this ship being allowed to get so close? Hope she’s also being watched for conducting any activities below the surface too around any sensitive areas.

        • Any country only has jurisdiction over over its territorial waters which are limited to 12 nautical miles by international treaties.

          Economic Exclusion Zones only give a nation exclusivity over the resources under the waves, including the under the sea bed. There is right of passage for any ship in these zones, including warships. This ship is not a warship, although it is government owned.

          They can legally ap the ocean floor anywhere in the world right up to the 12nmile limits of any country. We do the same to them for similar reasons…

          Cheers CR

          • How far was Duncan or Daring whichever it was off of Crimea when it had all that close attention from the Russians a while back.

          • Yes but you are forgetting that Crimea is not legally Russian. It has been recognised by the International court as belonging to Ukraine and Russia’s occupation is illegal. Therefore doesnt matter how close to crimea Duncan was. Its Ukranian territory. Or were you conveniently forgetting that fact?

          • There is an internationally recognised shipping lane which D class ships have used on at least 3 occasions. It lies close to the limits of territorial waters, but I do not know its’ exact location. The Russians made a lot of noise about our presence, but did nothing serious either to drive us away or register a formal complaint.

          • Thanks CR. I had forgotten about the 12 nm rule. Bit close for comfort though in these times.
            And on a different note, good on the Poms winning the T20 🏏 bash last night against Pakistan. Good game. It helps me to feel 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 again watching it!

          • I like it but we’d better take off the war head first…. Lol 😁. We can always replace it with a TV camera.

        • Looks to me like a telephoto has been used on the pic H I Sutton posted on Twitter but, even so, looks like it’s within 12 miles. Built in the 70s, looks like it was designed just after WWII !!!

          • Back in the day (mid 80s) we had the USS Spartanburg county alongside behind us. Every morning the USMC would do their PT in there platoons with there singing, all very enjoyable to watch.
            On the Saturday we invited some 4\5 down for a tour of the SM, took them in the mess and introduced them to ‘fizzy apple juice’. Several hours later we managed to pour them onto the jetty and with lots of help from their buddies got them back to the ship. Funny thing, we never saw them again!!!! Everyone else who came down avoided the fizzy apple juice!!! No stamina those boys……

          • “Fizzy apple juice”, they have trouble enough with English and there’s you lot confusing the poor buggers even more! I bet every one of them still doesn’t trust what a Brit says to them to this day. 😂

    • Probably being watched by an army recruit. Standing on the beach with a pair of Curry’s binoculars he bought himself. Reporting back to GCHQ on his ChiCom produced mobile phone.

      In the perfect world, that would be a great training task for a small Air Independent Propulsion submarine, operated by a Royal Nay Reserve crew.

  4. I love how every time someone writes about Russian naval vessels they write words like very capable when no one has any evidence to suggest they are anything other than antiques held together with duct tape crewed by barley educated Orcs.

    On another note With the hysteria in the media about power cables all the Russians have to do is sail a trawler round a Scottish island to have HMG s**ting itself. The MOD brass should have a think about the effects of that next time they are leaking some nonsense story to the press to try and get an extra frigate.

    • ‘… antiques held together with duct tape crewed by barely educated Orcs’ didn’t you know that the Russian High Brass has just stated that the Russia Navy retains equality to any Nation in the World mind you the Kremlins TV mouthpiece is calling for all out war on NATO to push it back to 1999 lines in Europe. They sure live in Fantasy World which makes Disney World look like the RUSI by comparison. Do these people believe any of this, simply trying to convince an increasingly angry and sceptical internal worried public or just want us to believe they are totally mad and thus unpredictable. All threes in various degrees I guess.

      • Some Russians believe it, some are completely switched off to any political or mouthpiece news. Others know it’s all nonsense. What can they do though. There’s no opposition party to vote for and up until recently life had been bearable/comfortable for most so they all put up with it.
        There’s a great channel on YouTube called 1420 that’s goes and speaks to Russians in the streets.
        Now we are seeing more sections of Russian people voicing there annoyance, leaving the country etc.
        Some it is shock though. Imagine a foreigner turned up here tomorrow and told you everything you watch and read is lying to you. It would take time to process that. Some would believe it others won’t.

    • What very few people know is whether HMG really is in a flap or whether it is making a lot of noise about nothing, just like the Russians have done with our type 45s. What I do know is that the analysts in MoD are very well-informed and very measured in their assessments; it is much more likely that any mistakes will be political rather than military.

  7. Hmmm…perhaps HMG/MoD should consider recasting this incident in a manner similar ro my former AF superiors, ‘don’t think of this as an issue/crisis, but rather as an opportunity to excel/adapt/overcome/ad nauseum.’ In this specific case, an opportunity to acquire an additional MROS vessel cheaply. 🤔😁 It would probably be a decent diplomatic gesture to provide the slobbering Orcs w/ some life rafts, oars, water, compasses and a couple nav charts, but those details are negotiable. Figure the all in costs at £5K or less, absent the vessel’s refit to bring up to RN standards.
    Perhaps something to ponder…😁

  8. I do love the fact…russia has “spy ships” and we have survey vessels.

    Nothing really to get pants in a twist over, everyone does it.

    This ship does make HMS Scott look like a spring chicken at only 25 years old.

  10. Going to need to keep a very careful eye on this ship. Can it have an accident? Be in no doubt we are in a state of hybrid warfare with Russia and they have nothing but malicious intent towards the UK.
    We should return the favour and have a load of our ships sail off their northern coastline.
    Its gathering intelligence on our sub sea infrastructure therefore conducting a military operation against the uk.
    Should be told to keep moving. If it enters our territorial waters move on or be boarded.

    • They get jolly cross when we send an aircraft to the Kola peninsula, even though it has civilian ADS-B kit on board and publishes a flight plan in advance. Sabre rattling may at times be counter-productive, just like crying wolf.

  11. Times like this are when I wish the UK had a larger sub fleet – even diesel-electric would be fine for such work closer to home.

    Keep a hidden eye on such unwelcome visitors, especially ones who keep trailing their coats in this manner. A few periscope shots of the ships would also make for a very interesting RN Twitter post (or whatever succeeds Twitter in a post-Musk world).

    • I’m not sure you want your submarines in close proximity to hyrdo graphic or spy ships. That being said we should have something even just a small cutter following every Russian ship any where near our cabals or territorial waters.

      • Can we convert some torpedoes with take out the stuff that goes bang and instead replace with sonar plus cameras plus lights to follow this at a distance and keep an eye on it from say and river class opv? Are our torpedoes still fiber optic connected?

  12. She actually has pretty nice lines, very pronounced sheer 😮 Still wouldn’t loose any sleep if a Spearfish Mod1 cut her in two.

  13. The Russian Navy ship is also regulalry sending Morse code weather back to Baltic Fleet Headquarters, Kaliningrad. 

    This is international weather code FM13 Ship surface observation which is all decodable. RMP is Kaliningrad. RMIK is ship.

    From 15th November. 

    8345 Kilohertz CW, 0936 UTC 

    VVV RMP DE RMIK QSA ? QTC K 
    RMIK 975 18 15 1232 975 BT SML FOR RCD88 RIO80 BT 
    15091 99567 70015 41496 81219 10104 49936 57007 71022 886// 22210 00123 20806 88000 15014 BT AR RMIK K 
    RMIK OK QRU K

    Breaks to 56.7N 01.5W Heading North East

    https://goo.gl/maps/8dpVJrETFR4zixL46

    Morse code recording from ship off Scotland. 

    https://vocaroo.com/1m1jpqiWjtmj

  14. Russian missile has landed in Poland and killed at least 2 people. Will NATO respond? Russia were warned in february when war started. Not one inch into NATO territory.

  15. Russian Navy Admiral Vladimirskiy callsign RMIK is still sending regular Morse code weather. Looks like it is heading back towards Scotland?

    8345 Kilohertz, 18th November, 1821 UTC. Sending weather to RIT = Severomorsk base. 

    VVV RIT DE RMIK QSA ? QTC K 
    RMIK 351 16 18 2102 351 BT SML FOR RCD88 RIO80 BT 
    18181 99546 10033 42497 81017 10093 40044 52021 886// 22273 00133 2//// 18012 BT AR RMIK K 
    RMIK RPT 351 16 18 2102 351 K
    RMIK OK QRU K 

    Breaks to 54.6N 03.3E Heading North West at 11-15 Knots 

    https://goo.gl/maps/6MspdrQLZgTiaQrD8

    https://met.nps.edu/~bcreasey/mr3222/files/helpful/DecodeShipObservationCode.pdf

    Second ship on recording is Admiral Vladimirskiy RMIK. First ship is RBDF PM-82 Amur class.

    https://vocaroo.com/1nUt2CPVoMh0

  16. The Russian Navy ship is back off eastern Scotland. It sent a Morse weather message back to Kaliningrad naval base, 20th November.

    Current position as of 0904 UTC 

    56.7N 01.5W Heading South at 1-5 Knots 

    https://goo.gl/maps/BBusKEju2w8Wn6999

    Morse recording  

    https://vocaroo.com/1cAzq8gKSJqd

    Russian Navy Morse code weather from ship off Scotland, 8345 Kilohertz CW, 0904 UTC 

    VVV RMP DE RMIK QSA ? QTC K 
    RMIK 132 19 20 1201 132 BT SML FOR RCD88 RIO80 BT 
    20091 99567 70015 41496 81716 10073 40005 57007 76062 8872/ 22241 00114 2070 (STOPS)
    VVV RMP DE RMIK QSA ? K 
    RMIK COR PBL 132 20 20 1201 13 EEEEE 
    RMIK NR 132 COR PBL 132 20 20 1201 132 K 
    RMIK RPT 20705 314// 40906 88000 20016 BT AR RMIK K 
    RMIK OK QRU K 

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