What is Russia doing at the bottom of the sea?
The Europeans | European news, politics and culture
Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer
4.8 • 162 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2020
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last July, a group of fishermen near the coast of Norway were surprised to see a submarine burst out of the water in front of them. A terrible disaster had struck the Losharik, a highly advanced Russian vessel that had been lurking on the seafloor. But what happened? And what was the submarine doing so close to European shores?
This mystery has fascinated the Norwegian journalist Thomas Nilsen, one of the authors of a New York Times investigation into the Losharik disaster. We talked to him about why Russia is so interested in what lies beneath these waters. Spoiler alert: your internet connection depends on it.
Also this week: Finland's basic income experiment, a setback for German homophobes, and graffiti for the green-fingered.
Thomas is the editor of the Barents Observer. Read his New York Times investigation: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/world/europe/russian-submarine-fire-losharik.html
We're hosting an Online Pub Quiz for our Patreon supporters this week! To join the fun, you can sign up to support us here: https://www.patreon.com/europeanspodcast
Isolation Inspiration:
Trying: https://youtu.be/nGA_6WTD3vM
Under Milk Wood: https://youtu.be/WJtzOD3KbLM
Thanks for listening!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Katie, the bells have got new tunes. |
| 0:18.7 | Ah, later stage of the saga. What are they playing these days? |
| 0:21.9 | They have a different tune every quarter of the hour. |
| 0:24.8 | And it's always a bit of a challenge when the tunes change to try and work out what they are |
| 0:29.7 | because they often don't sound anything like the song itself. |
| 0:32.5 | But we've worked out that quarter two is Depeche modes, enjoy the silence. |
| 0:37.2 | And I actually think it's an affront. To Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence and I actually think it's an affront. |
| 0:39.2 | To Depeche Mode. To Depeche Mode but also to us it's like saying ha ha enjoy the silence. |
| 0:44.2 | The irony of having a song called Enjoy the Silence when there's this horrific noise ringing in my ears. |
| 0:50.7 | Oh. Depeche Mode are from my neck of the woods. Are they? |
| 0:55.1 | Basilden. |
| 0:55.7 | No way. |
| 0:56.7 | Local pride. |
| 0:57.8 | I felt like I'm responsible somehow. |
| 0:59.7 | How's everything in London? |
| 1:01.7 | Good. |
| 1:02.2 | Thank you. |
| 1:02.9 | This was the week where I really leaned into all of the lockdown cliches. |
| 1:07.2 | Shaved your head. |
| 1:08.3 | Shave my head. |
| 1:09.9 | Not yet, but I feel like that's next. No, didn't shave my head, but I have made my own pastry and learned a dance routine on TikTok. |
| 1:17.8 | No way. What dance routine did you learn? |
... |
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