MOSCOW, October 25 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday Sweden had not contacted Russia during its week-long hunt for a foreign submarine that allegedly got into trouble in the waters off Stockholm.
Lavrov, who appeared on the Vesti v Subbotu (Vesti on Saturday) show, was asked whether Oslo had contacted Moscow via diplomatic channels following the initial reports, to which he responded with a "no".
The Russian foreign minister said he was surprised by the media hype around the purported distress signal that Sweden had intercepted in its waters.
"Allegations pointing to a Russian submarine came from mass media. Swedish authorities never supported them officially," Lavrov noted.
When asked whose sub it could be, the minister said he had "no idea."
"I saw some TV footage. I am not sure whether it looked like a submarine. [It looked like] something had floated to the surface, a log or what not... We received data that said a Dutch submarine could have been in that area at the time, before leaving for an Estonian port, I think," Lavrov said.
On Friday, the Swedish Navy called off its search for the suspected submarine in the sea south of Stockholm. Swedish media reports suggested that it could be a crippled Russian submarine, but the Russian Defense Ministry later denied the claims.
