Finnish authorities are investigating the possibility of a Russian tanker being involved in the outage of the Estlink 2 undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia this week, according to the Financial Times. This is the latest in a series of similar incidents that have occurred recently in the area.
Finnish authorities blocked the Eagle S oil tanker after the Estlink 2 power cable in the Gulf of Finland broke on December 25. The Estlink 2 cable, which has been in operation since 2014, plays an important role in the supply of electricity from Finland to Estonia.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said: The authorities are closely monitoring the incident during Christmas and conducting an investigation, while cable operator Fingrid said: We are considering many possible causes, from sabotage to technical errors, and have not ruled out any possibility.
The Eagle S is currently the focus of the investigation, although there are no further details, according to the Financial Times. A Financial Times source said the Russian ship was also suspected of being involved in three data fiber optic outages in the Gulf of Finland last month.
The three cables connect Finland with Germany, Lithuania and Sweden. In particular, the reason for the Finland - Sweden cable break has been confirmed to be due to construction activities. However, doubts about the remaining two cables initially centered on a Chinese ship, the Yi Peng 3, which was passing through the area at the time of the incident.
The Yi Peng 3 then stopped in international waters and was inspected by Chinese investigators, with officials from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Finland present.
Although there is no verification that the Yi Peng 3 or Eagle S were involved in these incidents, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has commented that Berlin must hope, although there is no certain information, that the damage was caused by sabotage.
Similarly, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on social media on December 26 that: It is necessary to prevent the risks caused by ships in the Russian shadow fleet.
