Russia, Norway Square Off Over Trawler Incident

Following the detention of a Russian fishing trawler ("Elektron") in Norwegian-claimed fishing areas on Saturday, the Russians are sending a Udaloy-class destroyer, RNS Admiral Levchenko, on a mission to "conduct surveillance of Russia's territorial waters to prevent the unauthorized entry of foreign ships". They claim the deployment of the destroyer has nothing to do with the detention of the Elektron, and are allowing diplomatic efforts to work. Ri-ight...

You know, if this does turn into a shooting match (which I doubt), I think I'd make the Norwegians and their Ula-class submarines about a two ship favorite... (mostly because of Norway's superior maritime air arm).

Going deep...

Update 0900 19 Oct: The Russians are running for it... with two Norwegian inspectors onboard, and the Admiral Levchencko providing cover. Since the trawler has reached Russian territorial waters, it looks like the Norwegians lost this round. They did, however, stop another escorting trawler by fouling its prop with a net dropped from the air.