GENEVA, January 22. /TASS/. The government of Finland remains uncertain about causes of multiple incidents, during which underwater telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged, Finnish President Alexander Stubb told Bloomberg TV during the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"Investigations are still ongoing, and there are always a couple of options: one is sabotage, the other one is a mistake, and the third one is incompetence," he said. "Our investigation is still ongoing, so we can’t really take a stand on that."
At the same time, he added that such incidents are "not in the interest of Russia or anyone else."
In his words, the country’s government has stepped up its control over the Baltic Sea waters together other NATO allies. The president added, prevention of such incidents is more important than establishing their causes.
The ruptures of underwater cables in the Baltic Sea were reported in November and December 2024. Two underwater cables were damaged under the Baltic Sea on November 17 and 18. One connected Germany and Finland, and the other Sweden and Lithuania. According to the MarineTraffic ship tracking service, the China-flagged ship Yi Peng 3 was close to the spot where the cable between Sweden and Lithuania was severed. The same ship later moved across the area where the C-Lion1 cable between Germany and Finland was damaged.
On December 25, 2024, the EstLink 2 power cable, connecting Finland’s energy grid with Estonia through the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, was suddenly damaged. Finland’s Fingrid company reported that its repairs would take several months. The country‘s police and border guards have detained the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S on suspicion of being involved in the accident. Later, the Postimees newspaper reported damage to three cables between the two countries, citing several Estonian companies.
NATO subsequently initiated the Baltic Sentry mission to protect submarine infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters last week that the West’s accusations that Russia allegedly damaged the undersea cables in the Baltic Sea are a play "to limit Russian oil exports by any means possible." "Simultaneously, they are trying to create the preconditions for introducing arbitrary restrictions on international shipping in the Baltic Sea in light of the notorious speculation about turning it into an ‘internal sea’ of NATO," she added.