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Finland stops Russia-linked vessel over damaged undersea power cable in Baltic Sea (apnews.com)

submitted 6 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

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Archived version

Finnish authorities have detained a Russia-linked ship as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables, according to police and news media reports, in the latest incident involving disruption of key infrastructure.

Finnish police and border guards boarded the vessel, the Eagle S, early Thursday and took over the command bridge, Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku said at a news conference. The vessel was being held in Finnish territorial waters, police said.

The Eagle S is flagged in the Cook Islands, but was described by Finnish customs officials as a suspected part of Russia’s shadow fleet of fuel tankers, Yle television reported. Those are aging vessels with obscure ownership, acquired to evade Western sanctions amid the war in Ukraine and operating without Western-regulated insurance.

[...]

Estonia’s government was holding a extraordinary meeting on the issue Thursday, Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on X. Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said she was in close touch with Michal and Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

“Our armed forces have strengthened surveillance and are monitoring the situation,” she said on X. “The Baltic states currently have sufficient energy production capacity, although we are challenged by the Baltic Sea cable incidents.”

[...]

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[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 10 points 6 months ago

What's so weird about all of this is how strange and passive-aggressive it is.

If we're assuming that Russia did, in fact, do this: You're not going to cause any major long-term problem by cutting one power cable. It's just annoying. It's like China spraying water cannons and firing signal flares at "enemy" navy boats. It's like, "You better let me do what I want, or I'll bug you, and you'll have to put in some overtime repairing some minor stuff that I did! And you can't stop me!"

If you want to war, war. If you want to get with the program and stop killing Ukrainians, you can have your assets back and start to trade again. Don't try to tread this middle ground where you're showing the awesome might of the Russian military machine by assaulting an undersea cable, threatening to escalate to bombing trees and sabotaging all Finland's saltshakers if they don't start trembling before you.