Finland suspects Russian ship of sabotaging undersea cable

Finnish police reported that the anchor of the Russian cargo ship Fitburg, which was bound from St. Petersburg to the Israeli port of Haifa, dragged along the bottom of the Gulf of Finland for tens of kilometers before damaging an undersea telecommunications cable.

As the Moscow Times reports, the incident happened between Helsinki, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia, and has raised suspicions of possible sabotage as part of Russia's broader hybrid war against the West.

Investigators took action on suspicion of serious damage to property and interference with telecommunications. There were 14 crew members from several post-Soviet countries on board, with one Azerbaijani citizen detained and three others, including a Russian, banned from travelling.

The cable belongs to the Finnish company Elisa and is located in the exclusive economic zone of Estonia.

After a series of similar incidents in the Baltic Sea, experts are again voicing the opinion that this is a strategic pressure from Moscow on EU infrastructure.

(pir)