KARWAR: The behaviour of Russian naval personnel who accompanied INS Vikramaditya to Karnataka’s Karwar caused some embarrassing situations on Saturday.

About 120 Russians came with the aircraft carrier to train Indian naval personnel.

On Saturday, some of them went out shopping and drank alcohol in public while moving around on the main road. This made many people uncomfortable especially women. When journalists caught this on camera, these personnel said ‘thank you’ without knowing why they were being photographed. Some even shook hands with people from the media.

On Saturday, about 50 Russians were found swimming nude off Karwar beach which made the large number of tourists present there uncomfortable. The police had to intervene and convinced the Russians that it was not allowed on the beaches in Karnataka. The Russians left soon after that.

“We found it difficult to communicate with them as most of them don’t understand English,” said a police officer. But locals were angry by this behaviour. "It’s not their mistake. It’s the mistake of Indian Navy staff who didn’t educate them about the local culture,” said Prem Naik , a shopkeeper.

The Indian Navy should educate these men about the dos and don’ts of behaving in public before allowing them to move around in Karwar,” said MN Naik, a retired teacher.