[xXx_swat21_xXx]

If you could source that very accurate map that's available publicly I'd be very appreciative; I can only find the paper version for sale and don't want to pay $100 for something that will only arrive in a few weeks. The lines on the images that are being circulated are not accurate in the least, they are very rough estimates.

[lithos]

Paper and $100 is still very public, we're just spoiled. It's also going to cost you less time contacting/accessing each website individually.

You might have some luck with RL social networking.

Or could settle for info graphic form(and link/contact info) at submarinecablemap.com

[xXx_swat21_xXx]

That's the problem. SubmarineCableMap.com and similar web sites show logical, not physical, representations of the underwater cables. Cables are not that neat and tidy. A proper nautical chart would; I'll pay for it, if I find a downloadable digital one for sale.

I apreciate @CovertShores's diagram showing a general area where cables are believed to be, but we can do better with a nautical chart showing exactly where the cables are, to prove or disprove the RV Yantar is over top of them.

RV Yantar's slow methodical movements suggest they're doing something, but I don't know that it suggests they're tapping cables. It looks more like a search pattern using underwater equipment that moves very slowly.

Towed sonar arrays can usually move ~4kn, so I don't think it's towed sonar. I believe it's a remote operated vehicle sniffing along the ocean's floor, on a tether, and they need to move the ship slowly, at 0.5kn to "keep up" with the ROV at the end of the line.

Are they looking for the cables themselves? Maybe. Are they looking for pre-existing taps on those cables? If they're doing anything to do with underwater cables, I think so. Are they putting their own taps on the lines? Maybe, I can't disprove that, but I'd like charts to show exactly where those underwater cables are, to see if they're even doing something cable related - which is total speculation at this point.

If the cables are shown to be 10 miles away, they're clearly looking at something else.

Isn't it possible the Russians want you to think they're looking at cables, and not helping a stuck submarine, or other unmentioned possibility?