Finland investigates Russian ship after power outage

Finnish police are investigating whether a Russian ship was involved in the sabotage of power cables running between Finland and Estonia.

Authorities said Thursday they believe the anchor of the Eagle S, a Cook Islands-registered oil tanker, may have damaged the Estlink 2 cable, which was disconnected on Thursday. Private.

The ship is believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which includes ships carrying embargoed Russian petroleum products..

This is the latest in a series of incidents in recent years in which underwater cables in the Baltic region have been damaged or completely severed.

Fingrid, the operator of Finland’s national power grid, said Estlink 2 remained offline but the damage “does not jeopardize the operation of the electricity system” in the country.

Repairs are expected to take “several months”.

“On our side, we are investigating serious sabotage,” said Robin Lardot, Director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

President Alexander Stubb posted on X that he had been given an “overview” of the cable break by authorities.

He emphasized the need to “contain risks” posed by ships of the shadow fleet.

Finnish police said the incident was being investigated as a “serious crime”.

The damaged cable had a transmission capacity of 650 megawatts and was 170km (105 miles) long, of which 145km was flooded. The fault was identified on Thursday in the submarine section.

The EU has threatened to impose further sanctions on Russia over the incident and said it is “strengthening efforts to protect undersea cables”.

“We strongly condemn any act of deliberate sabotage of critical European infrastructure,” the European Commission and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. in a joint statement.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said on Thursday that damage to submarines’ critical infrastructure had become “so frequent” that it raised doubts about the idea that the damage could be considered “inadvertent” or “merely poor workmanship”.

“We must understand that damage to submarine infrastructure has become more systematic and must therefore be considered attacks against vital structures,” Tsahkna said in a press release. our”.

The Eagle S was escorted to a Finnish port, the Foreign Ministry added.

“In addition to circumventing sanctions, the shadow fleet is also a security threat in the Baltic Sea and we cannot just sit back and watch,” Tsahkna continued.

The telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Germany was broken in November and internet connections between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland were shut down at the same time.

German prosecutors are still investigating the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion between Russia and Germany in 2022.

And in October 2023, the natural gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was seriously damaged.

Finnish officials later said that the incident was caused by a Chinese container ship pulling anchor.