Kola Peninsula

We also have multiple strategic, geopolitically strategic locations close by.

So Kola Peninsula obviously, uh, of interest to, to, for the whole Western coalition.

Also the surroundings of St. Petersburg, which has been lately very important because the Ukrainians have been, uh, uh, fighting their war on this area too, and it has had some influence to, to Finland.

We can return to that later.

Sweden has signed a HIMARS rocket artillery deal and is deepening its defense ties with Finland.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to utilize its heavily fortified nuclear bastion on the Kola Peninsula and has issued direct warnings against Norway's border reinforcements.

So we are seeing a rapid militarization of the entire Nordic-Baltic corridor.

We are, and when we analyze the sentiment among defense analysts on social media, such as the open-source intelligence account, Laplacian28, they assess that Poland's increasingly robust military modernization is currently serving as the strongest regional deterrent.

So we found traces of two really interesting invasive species.

So the pink salmon, as you say, which we've talked about on the programme before, they were brought in by Russia to the Kola Peninsula with a view to trying to establish a commercial fishery.

It wasn't terribly successful, but the fish stayed on in the rivers.

And for some strange reason, since 2017, the numbers have become astronomically large.

Let's get into the geography, because that is always where aviation starts.

Norway's northern coastline sits directly adjacent to the Kola Peninsula.

If you have not put that on a chart, do it after this.

The Kola Peninsula is arguably the most militarized piece of land on Earth per square kilometer.

It is home to Russia's northern fleet, including ballistic missile submarines and a dense concentration of military airfields – Severomorsk, Olenya, Munchagorsk.

These are significant Russian military aviation hubs, and they sit in close proximity to the Norwegian border.

He says if they perform perfectly, if they run silent and deep and remain completely undetected, they will be rewarded with a week of shore leave in Havana.

Sunshine beaches and a break from the bitter freezing misery of the Kola Peninsula.

It's the ultimate corporate bait and switch.

It really is.

The Urals, 1976, a photographer clicks this shot and later provides a more detailed drawing.

May 1992, a military team in the Kola Peninsula tapes this spinning object.

In Tbilisi, a crew shooting a music video spots this overhead.

Today, average Russians are free to discuss UFOs, but it wasn't always so.

GI-UK gap the admiral is talking about is not just a strategic corridor linking NATO territory.

It also leads to one of Russia's most important military strongholds, the Kola Peninsula.

This is where Moscow bases its most advanced air, land, and sea forces, as well as its nuclear-powered submarines capable of firing ballistic missiles from underwater.

Above us flies a P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft, considered the top of the line.

He'd only been in power, remember, 100 days at this point.

He didn't understand that he had to be seen to be helping, that he couldn't just delegate this to submarine rescue professionals up there on the Kola Peninsula, that he had to get personally involved.

By day three, the Russians continue to pretend they've got things under control, saying the Kursk had simply malfunctioned.

They make the outrageous claim that communication has been established, and that water and oxygen are being delivered.