The Russians Are Coming … And Have Been For Years

Earlier this week, residents living along the eastern Connecticut and western Rhode Island shoreline — not to mention the eastern tip of Long Island — received a shot of panic when a sitting congressman took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to voice concerns over a Russian spy ship parked 30 miles off the mouth of the Thames River.

"Mr. Speaker, as we are sitting here in this Chamber, right now off the coast of Groton, Connecticut, 30 miles from the Groton Navy Sub Base, which is the oldest submarine base in America, there is a Russian spy ship, the Viktor Leonov, that is loitering — as was reported this morning from the Navy and news sources — off the coast, again, within the bare minimum of international waters," U.S. Representative Joe Courtney, a Democrat and member of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, said.