Nato to boost military presence in Baltic Sea after suspected sabotage of cable

Nato will bolster its military presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage of an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia this week, the Western military alliance's chief Mark Rutte said on Dec 27.

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On Christmas Day, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic.

The Finnish authorities on Dec 26 seized a ship carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea on suspicion it caused the outage of the power cable, and that it also damaged or broke four internet lines.

The Cook Islands-registered ship, named by the authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded by a Finnish coast guard crew that took command and sailed the vessel to Finnish waters, a coast guard official said at a press conference.

"From our side, we are investigating grave sabotage," said Mr Robin Lardot, director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation. "According to our understanding, an anchor of the vessel that is under investigation has caused the damage."

The Finnish Customs service said it had seized the vessel's cargo and that the Eagle S was believed to belong to Russia's so-called shadow fleet of ageing tankers that seek to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.

Two fibre-optic cables owned by Finnish operator Elisa linking Finland and Estonia were broken, while a third link between the two countries owned by China's Citic was damaged, Finnish transport and communications agency Traficom said.

A fourth internet cable running between Finland and Germany and belonging to Finnish group Cinia was also believed to have been severed, the agency said.