STOCKHOLM: Swedish authorities mentioned on Friday (Feb 21) that they have been investigating suspected harm to a cable within the Baltic Sea, following a string of incidents consultants imagine are acts of sabotage orchestrated by Russia.
Finnish operator Cinia mentioned its C-Lion 1 communications cable linking Finland and Germany had been broken however was operational.
“The cable harm is minor and has no affect on the performance of the info connections by the C-Lion 1 submarine cable. Knowledge visitors could be transmitted over the cable usually,” it mentioned in a press release.
The identical cable had beforehand been reduce in November final yr with suspicions falling on a Chinese language ship.
A string of incidents involving harm to cables and different infrastructure within the Baltic Sea have occurred in latest months, amid hovering tensions between the West and Russia over Moscow’s conflict in Ukraine.
Swedish police spokesman Mathias Rutegard advised AFP an investigation into suspected “sabotage” had been opened following the most recent incident, which occurred east of the Swedish island of Gotland.
“Now we have opened a preliminary investigation right into a suspected damaged cable within the Baltic Sea and inside the Swedish financial zone,” Rutegard mentioned.
Police later mentioned in a press release that that they had “no suspect” at this stage.
“SERIOUS SECURITY SITUATION”
A spokeswoman for the Swedish coast guard, Karin Vehicles, advised AFP that they had despatched a ship to the location east of Sweden’s island of Gotland and have been “helping with the crime scene investigation”.
Vehicles mentioned she didn’t have details about when the harm occurred, however mentioned the coast guard had began heading in the direction of the location the night time earlier than.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson mentioned in a publish to X that the federal government was monitoring the scenario.
“We take all reviews of potential harm to infrastructure within the Baltic Sea very critically. As I’ve mentioned earlier than, they should be seen within the context of the intense safety scenario,” Kristersson mentioned.
The European Fee mentioned on Friday it will step up safety necessities for underwater cables and prioritise financing for the deployment of recent and sensible cables.
It additionally mentioned the European Union would enhance the capability for the swift restore of broken cables and would implement sanctions towards “hostile actors” and the “shadow fleet”.
Safety analysts say Russia is working a “shadow fleet” of lots of of vessels, aiming to dodge Western sanctions – a few of that are accused of damaging cables.
