MOSCOW, November 5. /TASS/. Helsinki District Court has handed the Russian captain of the Fitburg ship a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence in a case involving alleged damage to undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland, according to a ruling seen by TASS, which also notes that the judgment is not yet final.

"The captain has been sentenced to three years and six months in prison," the document said. The vessel’s boatswain received a sentence of two years and ten months.

According to the ruling, investigators established that the Fitburg left the port of St. Petersburg and sailed through the Gulf of Finland outside Finnish territorial waters for several hours with its anchor lowered. Investigators say this damaged two undersea cables and endangered other communications cables, power cables and a gas pipeline. The crew lifted the anchor after receiving a notification from Finnish authorities.

Court documents said the prosecution "did not allege that the captain personally gave a direct order to lower the anchor, nor that the boatswain actively participated in lowering it." Nevertheless, the court concluded that "the captain and boatswain must have known that the anchor was down while the vessel was underway at sea."

The court also ordered the two men "to pay compensation covering the costs of repairing and inspecting the cables and pipeline, largely in line with the plaintiffs’ claims."

The Finnish Coast Guard detained the vessel on December 31, 2025, in connection with damage to an undersea telecommunications cable belonging to the Elisa enterprise. Finnish police said the cable connects Helsinki and Tallinn and that the damaged section lies within Estonia’s exclusive economic zone. They classified the incident as a crime.

The vessel was released from detention in January. It is registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.