Norway has released the Norwegian ship Silver Dania with a Russian crew suspected of involvement in damaging a fiber optic cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden. Police have found no evidence linking the Silver Dania to the incident.
This was reported by the Norwegian police.
The crew and the shipping company have cooperated with the Norwegian authorities. The Tromsø Police District has now carried out a number of investigative actions and has done everything requested by Latvia. While the investigation will continue, Norway "sees no reason for the ship to remain in the port of Tromsø".
On the morning of January 26, an underwater fiber-optic cable belonging to Latvian Radio (LVRTC) broke in the Baltic Sea.
Swedish prosecutors have launched an investigation into cable sabotage and have detained a Maltese-registered vessel that left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on January 24 and was sailing between the Swedish island and Latvia at the time of the incident.
Cable breaks in the Baltic Sea
An undersea telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany, which runs alongside other important undersea infrastructure, including gas pipelines and power cables, was severed on November 18, 2024. A cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also reported to have been severed. Both incidents came just weeks after the United States detected increased Russian military activity around major undersea cables.
Germany immediately declared that these incidents were sabotage and a hybrid attack. The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, wrote that the crew of the Chinese bulk carrier “Yi Peng 3” is suspected of severing communication cables in the Baltic Sea.
Investigators believe the crew may have intentionally severed two important data cables while dragging the anchor along the bottom of the Baltic Sea for more than 160 kilometers.
On Christmas Day, December 25, the “Estlink 2” submarine power cable between Finland and Estonia broke. Two ships were passing over it at the time of the incident. Finnish police suspect that the “Eagle S”, which was en route from Russia to Egypt, was involved.
- However, according to WP, American and European intelligence agencies believe that the ruptures of submarine cables in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland were caused by maritime accidents, not by Russian sabotage.
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