Russian Fleet pays unexpected visit to France, English Channel On the hunt ... The Russian anti-submarine destroyer Severomorsk. Source: WikiPedia Source: Supplied RUSSIA is getting bolder. In the past day it's sent a fleet of warships through the English Channel and anchored it off the French coast - without notice. The four warships passed through the crowded, narrow waterway last night before unexpectedly dropping anchor off the French coast in the Bay of the Siene. RELATED: Putin puts nuclear war back on the agenda France recently suspended the delivery of a newly built helicopter carrying assault ship to its buyer, Russia, in protest of its activity in Crimea and Ukraine. It is a move that has caused a serious rise in tensions between the two nations. NATO has publicly been nonchalant about the unannounced move - which Russia attributes to "unexpectedly bad weather" - but it is an act that hearkens back to an era of Cold War tensions. The four ships are led by the destroyer Severomorsk and includes an amphibious assault ship, a tanker and a tug. "While it is anchored the crew are undertaking a series of exercises on how to tackle infiltrating submarine forces and are training on survival techniques in the case of flooding or fire," Russian news agency RIA Novosti reports naval sources as stating. NATO has told European media it is tracking the ships, but that it "did not regard their activity as hostile." Stormy waters ... A Russian supply vessel, A Ropucha class landing ship and a Udaloy-1 class destroyer pictured from HMS Tyne in international waters today. Source: British MoD Source: Supplied We see this as a routine movement on the part of the Russian navy. And they're well within their rights to do so," a spokesman for NATO's military command said. It's not as if they are doing some war-fighting manoeuvres in the English Channel or something that could be considered hostile. The Royal Navy sent a patrol vessel, the HMS Tyne, to monitor the Russians as they passed through the narrow waters. Russian forces sometimes use the route as the most direct path to the Mediterranean Sea. A British Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are aware that four Russian naval ships have passed through the Dover Strait from the North Sea into the English Channel, which all ships have the right to do under international law." But Russian moves in the skies above Europe and off the United States, combined with a possible submarine incursion in Sweden, has caused the West to be on edge for any such unexpected, unannounced activity. At the time the Russian fleet sailed through the Channel, one of its submarines test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea. The warheads were directed at test targets in Russia's far east.