NATO state probes Russian tanker over mysterious cable incident – media

The Eagle S was reportedly stopped after an electricity cable linking Finland and Estonia was cut

Authorities in Finland are investigating whether a Russian oil tanker had anything to do with the severing of an undersea electricity cable this week, the Financial Times has reported. The incident was the latest in a series of cable breaks in the region.

Finnish officials stopped the tanker, the Eagle S, after the Estlink 2 electricity cable in the Gulf of Finland was cut on Wednesday, the British newspaper reported on Thursday. The Estlink 2 delivers power from Finland to Estonia, and has been operational since 2014.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that “the authorities are on standby over Christmas and are investigating the matter,” while the cable’s operator, Fingrid, said that “we are investigating several possible causes, from sabotage to technical failure, and nothing has been ruled out yet.”

The Eagle S is the focus of the government’s investigation, the Financial Times reported, citing anonymous “people familiar with the probe.” No further details were provided, although the paper’s sources said that the vessel was also under investigation over the severing of three data cables in the Gulf of Finland last month.

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These fiber optic cables linking Finland with Germany, Lithuania, and Sweden. The incident involving the Finland-Sweden cable was later confirmed to have been caused by construction work, while suspicion over the other two breaches initially fell on a Chinese vessel which passed over the cables around the time of the damage.

The ship, the Yi Peng 3, stopped in international waters and was boarded by Chinese investigators last week, with Swedish, Danish, German and Finnish officials present as observers.

It remains unclear whether the Yi Peng 3 had anything to do with the cable incidents. However, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said at the time that Berlin had to “assume, without certain information, that the damage was caused by sabotage.”

Likewise, although investigators have not yet established whether the Eagle S had anything to do with the most recent cable break, Finnish President Alexander Stubb announced on social media on Thursday that “it is necessary to prevent the risks posed by ships belonging to the Russian shadow fleet.”