Russian Official suggests ''U.S. sub chased away' boasts are PR move

Readers wishing to quickly grasp Russia's recent boasts about detecting and expelling a U.S. Virginia class sub near its territorial waters need only read the news capsules below in chronological order (from bottom to top), and recall that Russian leader Vladimir Putin takes personally the slightest military embarrassment and like the U.S. leader employs P.R. to overcome it.  Embarrassment has more about certain Russian aircraft  than any country's subs, and certainly as much about the Bering Sea as the Barents Sea.  [all emphases are mine]

Reported Today, Aug 10 (AFP)
Moscow chases US submarine away  [but  Boast Deflated by Credible Russian Official]

 "Occasionally other countries test how the submarine location service is working,"  said Leonid Kalashnikov,  deputy head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, suggesting that the rather unusual announcement was a public relations move by the [Russian] navy to call attention to their work.  - source


Reported Aug 9 (Reuters)
Russia detects, 'expels' presumed US submarine - Russian news agenciesA foreign submarine, presumed to be a U.S. Navy Virginia-class vessel, was detected by Northern Fleet forces on duty in the Barents Sea on Aug. 7, the spokesman said.  
"An anti-submarine attack group and an Ilyushin Il-38 anti-submarine aircraft were sent to the said area to search and track the sub," the Russian navy spokesman was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. -   source


August 8, 2014 -  Russian bombers on training missions intercepted by U.S. fighter jets off coast off Alaska  ...the aircrafts never entered U.S. airspace, NORAD officials say.  source

August 7, 2014 - (RIA Novosti) MOSCOW -  Russia’s Northern Fleet Tracks Foreign Submarine During Exercises -  source

Reported two weeks ago
23 July 2014  Russian Navy takes delivery of Ilyushin Il-38 anti-submarine aircraft
"Essentially, we have a fully-fledged analogue of the modern American P-8 Poseidon."  - Yuriy Yudin, Ilyushin Design Bureau CEO - source
 

Submarines are always silent and strange.