Police in Finland are investigating whether a Russian ship was involved in breaking an electricity cable connecting its state to Estonia.
As BBC News reports, Finnish authorities said late this week that they suspect the anchor of Cook Islands-registered tanker named Eagle S may have damaged the Estlink 2 cable.
The ship is believed to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet" of vessels carrying embargoed Russian oil products.
The cable rupture is the latest in a series of incidents where cables in the Baltic were damaged or severed.
Fingrid, which is responsible for Finland's national grid, said that the Estlink 2 cable had been out of service since December 25th, but said the damage "did not endanger the operation of the electricity system" in Finland.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation director Robin Lardo said it was investigating a “grave sabotage”, while Finnish police described it as "aggravated criminal mischief".
The damaged cable had a transmission capacity of 650 megawatts and is 170km long (105 miles), 145km of which is submerged.
The fault was located on Thursday in the submarine section.
The EU has threatened to impose further sanctions against Russia as a result of the incident.
A telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany was cut in November, and an internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland island stopped functioning around the same time.
In October 2023, severe damage was caused to a natural gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia.
German prosecutors are still investigating the explosion of Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022.
Read the BBC report here
