Sabotage suspicion in the Baltic Sea: new ship under suspicion

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Lerato Khumalo

Russian crew

Cable damage in the Baltic Sea: new ship under suspicion

Updated on January 31, 2025 – 5:26 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.

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A submarine cable is laid (symbol image): Such a cable between Sweden and Latvia was damaged. (Source: Imago Stock & People/Imago-Images pictures)

A submarine cable was damaged between Sweden and Latvia. Now there are new suspects.

New reversal in the case of the latest cable damage in the Baltic Sea: a suspicious ship with Russian crew has been set in Norway. The “Silver Dania” is suspected of being involved in the damage of a fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden, the police said in Tromsø in northern Norweg.

Therefore, at the request of the Latvian authorities, she was brought to the port of the city. The police are now on board the ship to make interrogations and searches and secure traces.

According to the police, the ship is registered in Norway. It also has a Norwegian owner, but runs between the Russian cities of Saint Petersburg and Murmansk. According to the information, the entire crew is also Russian.

On request, the Latvian police confirmed that they had submitted a request for legal assistance and that they work closely with the Norwegian law enforcement authorities. She did not want to provide any more information due to the ongoing investigation.

After a series of similar incidents in the Baltic Sea, damage to a data cable between the Swedish island of Gotland and the port city of Ventspils in Latvia, which is used by the Latvian radio and television center (LVRTC), occurred. The Swedish authorities then set a different ship with a Bulgarian owner and started investigations into possible severe sabotage. The owner rejected an accusation of sabotage.

The “Silver Dania” is said to have passed the cable at about the same time. A representative of her shipping company “fiscer” told the newspaper: “We didn’t do anything wrong.” Even an anchor was not ejected at the time.

So far, it has so far been unclear whether sabotage is behind the cable breaks. However, there is a suspicion that partly the so -called Russian shadow fleet could be behind it. This means tankers and other cargo ships with opaque owner structures that Russia uses to avoid sanctions as a result of his war of aggression against Ukraine, for example during oil transport.

The EU has issued sanctions against dozens of these ships, but its actual scope should be far greater. In order to better monitor cables and other critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, NATO recently launched the “Baltic Sentry” operation (German: Baltic Sea guards).