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Another Undersea Cable Damaged in Baltic Sea. Criminal Sabotage Investigation Launched (ft.com) 91

Posted by EditorDavid from the cutting-the-cable dept.
"An underwater data cable between Sweden and Latvia was damaged early on Sunday," reports the Financial Times, "in at least the fourth episode of potential sabotage in the Baltic Sea that has caused concern in Nato about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure..." Criminal investigations have started in Latvia and Sweden, and a ship has been seized as part of the probes, according to Swedish prosecutors, who did not identify the vessel. Previous incidents have been linked to Russian and Chinese ships...

The latest incident comes as the three Baltic states are preparing to disconnect their electricity systems from the former Soviet network in early February and integrate themselves into the continental European grid, with some fearing further potential disruption ahead of that. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have joined the EU and Nato since regaining their independence after their forced annexation by the Soviet Union, and see their switch to the European electricity system as their final integration into the west. KÄ(TM)stutis Budrys, Lithuania's foreign minister, said navigation rules in the Baltic Sea needed to be reviewed "especially when it comes to the use of anchors" and added there were now so many incidents that there was little chance they could all be accidents.

Repair of data cables has tended to take much less time than that for gas or electricity connections, and the Latvian state radio and television centre said it had found alternative routes for its communications.

Another Undersea Cable Damaged in Baltic Sea. Criminal Sabotage Investigation Launched More | Reply

Another Undersea Cable Damaged in Baltic Sea. Criminal Sabotage Investigation Launched

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  • Fuck Russia (Score:5, Informative)

    by GrahamJ ( 241784 ) on Sunday January 26, 2025 @09:11PM (#65120789)

    They are truly Earth's asshole

    • My first thought is, "there isn't a condom thick enough".

      We tried to welcome Russia into the world community after the Soviet Union packed it in. They took the opportunity to spread their criminal operations throughout the West, and continued their agitprop campaigns to undermine our societies.

      Collective punishment is unfair but also the only way to handle nations. Russia should be completely walled off from the global community until it has regressed to the stone age. Then maybe we can let them rejoin o

      • I think someone needs to learn a little history lol. We missed a huge opportunity to welcome them into the fold when the soviet union collapsed, instead we decided to treat them as an enemy despite their desperate overtures for economic help. It was perhaps one of the biggest blunders in our history, if we had welcomed them it may be a very different world now.

        • Yes, someone does need to learn a little history. You.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Bacila ( 860302 )

          I think someone needs to learn a little history lol. We missed a huge opportunity to welcome them into the fold when the soviet union collapsed, instead we decided to treat them as an enemy despite their desperate overtures for economic help. It was perhaps one of the biggest blunders in our history, if we had welcomed them it may be a very different world now.

          OPPORTUNITY??? That was the f***ing BIGGEST MISTAKE West did by not completely disintegrating russian federation into small national countries and saving those remnants of "empire of evil". Unfortunately west was was too afraid with dealing with uncertainties resulting from that fallout so they did not allow that empire to die but ressurected it and helped to grow again. Yes, West is to blame with that! And now we have another North Korea, just with 80-100 million of people, second in the world nuclear ar

      • Good thought about the condom. What the world needs is a condom big enough to fit right around Russia's head.

    • Mar-a-Lago is jealous and catching up quickly

    • The 190-meter-long merchant ship, now anchored off the Swedish city of Karlskrona, is called Vezhen and is flagged in Malta.
      No one knows the motive or who is behind what is now officially called sabotage. The answers may be found on board, but not necessarily.

    • R-ass-ia.

    • How on earth does that post get +5 informative??
      Sheesh.

      • Pretty much anything Anti MS or Anti Russia on here is a +5 insightful regardless of how incorrect or garbage the statement is.

  • Looks like the gloves are coming off now (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Sunday January 26, 2025 @09:22PM (#65120805)

    Good. Terrorism and criminal negligence need to be punished or things go to hell.

  • Looks like it's time (Score:5, Interesting)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Sunday January 26, 2025 @09:26PM (#65120813)

    To start having some torpedo testing in the Baltic Sea.

    • Or get some sharks with lasers...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      For oil-tankers? Are you mentally challenged?

      • For oil-tankers? Are you mentally challenged?

        If you use dummy warheads, let's say reinforced concrete, and target the rudder, the ship becomes immobilized.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

          I don't think we're that precise yet.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by gweihir ( 88907 )

            We are not. because it is not even a design goal. And for civilian vessels, there is no need at all. Just have coast guard board them, if needed via helicopter. This is essentially a police-level issue, not a military-level issue. Civilian vessels are slow and _very_ defenseless. If they really start to shoot back (about the most stupid thing you can do on an oil-tanker), the military can still take over. It is not like a ship like that could run away.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gweihir ( 88907 )

          That type of weapon does not exist and no, we are not that precise. Also, "immobilization" may still well turn into "major ecological disaster". Such a stupid, stupid idea. You must be one of the cretins that think problems are best solved with unsophisticated application of violence.

    • It is common for Swedish military planes to break the sounds barrier just a few meters above suspected small boats suspected for being Russian spy boats

  • Ian Fleming quote (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CommunityMember ( 6662188 ) on Sunday January 26, 2025 @09:52PM (#65120841)

    “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”.

    It is time to invoke article 5 yet?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      I can't see article 5 ever being invoked unless we were already in a world war. As much as I'd like to see it invoked and Putin given a good humbling, I don't relish the thought of a large-scale European conflict. If anyone think migrants are a problem now, just wait until that sort of conflict.

      Apparently the earlier damage was not intentional, but it was caused by an untrained crew and a dilapidated, run-down vessel. But in the end Putin is still responsible, since that vessel was carrying Putin's oil b

      • Article 5 doesn't need to be a war.

        Bringing things partially back to the way the 70s were for a year or two will likely be enough.

        Back then a rather large NATO military deployment along the Soviet borders kept the Soviet Union scared and busy enough to limit their "foreign policy" to mostly stern talk and the occasional skirmish far away from this deployment.

        If NATO deploys its military in numbers along the European borders with russia, the war in Ukraine will stop just because russia will have to try to ma

        • The difference is that the soviet leaders in the 1970s have been both sane and easily replaceable if they misbehave.
          Neither is the case nowadays.

          The war will not stop as long as putler is alive. He has removed troops and equipment from the borders two years ago already and for all his posturing doesn't really care about NATO deploying the military - he has other priorities.

          • Also when he dies he had better not have time to hit the button first.

          • He doesn't care, because there is literally nothing on most of the borders, except probably Poland.

            Turkey got putin out of Armenia and Syria (and is on the way of kicking him out of Libya) just by flexing a little bit of muscle.

            • He doesn't care because his war is the only thing he cares about. This is why Turkey was able to do it - neither Armenia nor Syria are of any importance to him.
              As for the border with Poland, putler has removed troops and equipment from Kaliningrad too.
              https://defence-industry.eu/ru... [defence-industry.eu]

      • Article 5 was invoked for the very first time right after the 9/11 attack.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Bacila ( 860302 )

        I can't see article 5 ever being invoked unless we were already in a world war. As much as I'd like to see it invoked and Putin given a good humbling, I don't relish the thought of a large-scale European conflict. If anyone think migrants are a problem now, just wait until that sort of conflict.

        Apparently the earlier damage was not intentional, but it was caused by an untrained crew and a dilapidated, run-down vessel. But in the end Putin is still responsible, since that vessel was carrying Putin's oil bust sanctions.

        When 09.11 attack happened Article 5 was put in action within few hours after US raised this question. Just because US have asked. ;) There is no need for world war.

    • âoeOnce is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy actionâ.

      Precisely. There's a pattern here and we'd be fools to ignore it.

      It is time to invoke article 5 yet?

      Part of me says it's time to declare war on Russia because they crossed many lines on damage to NATO nations. Another part of me doesn't want to see this escalate beyond the borders of Ukraine.

      Another trope to remember along with three times being enemy action is that if the enemy is in range of your weapons then you are in range of their weapons.

      I'm seeing that the USA has little concern over what Russia might do as they've shown themselves

      • Time to resurrect COCOM and give up on the treason that tricky dick called "the Détente".

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Bacila ( 860302 )

        Part of me says it's time to declare war on Russia because they crossed many lines on damage to NATO nations. Another part of me doesn't want to see this escalate beyond the borders of Ukraine.

        Declaring a war has very deep political consequences. When a country declares a formal war it looses it's status in UN, also any other country much cease their ties with that country otherwise they are labelled aggressors and accomplices too. And many more. That's why putinosran DID NOT declare a war on Ukraine, neither on Ingushia/Chechnia, neither on Sakartvelo/Georgia. Or for the same reason US did not declare war on Iraq, Afghanistan and etc. These were special war operations. However something must

    • The truth is undersea cables get damaged by accident all the time. It certainly happened more than 3 times in the past year.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Indeed. Usually, they just get quietly repaired and that is it. And there _is_ a real possibility that these trash tanker also have trash crews that really do not know any better. All the more reason to stop them though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chefren ( 17219 )

        The truth is also that in these recent cases in the Baltics, ship tracking has shown that in many cases there have been ships zig-zagging over where the cables are located just when the damage happened.

        The ship (Eagle S) that was detained by Finland over Christmas also happened to have an extra person not in the crew manifest onboard as well as a set of Russian spy equipment..
        The earlier two Chinese ships, Yi Peng 3 and Newnew Polar Bear, were dragging their anchors along the sea bottom for very long stretc

        • their was no Russian spy equipment, that turned out to be fake news that was corrected by "some" press, but it got little attention in the mainstream media.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Bacila ( 860302 )

        The truth is undersea cables get damaged by accident all the time. It certainly happened more than 3 times in the past year.

        No, such events were not happening all the time just 1-2 years ago. ;) It is just second half of 2024 that crew started become lousy and equipment unmaintained to a such level, that anchor is dropped and dragged for 100+ km without noticing...

        • There are hundreds of such incidents every year, your news bubble and feed algorithm decides if you will hear about them or not.

    • Don't think article 5 applies at sea, actually.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chefren ( 17219 )

        It is defintely a grey zone if property is being destroyed in international waters yes.

  • Would burrying the cable stop this ?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Bacila ( 860302 )

      Would burrying the cable stop this ?

      It is burried AFAIK already. digging it deep into ground is technically not feasible.

  • solved in one day (Score:4, Funny)

    by Fons_de_spons ( 1311177 ) on Monday January 27, 2025 @07:38AM (#65121479)
    The solution is easy. Give me one day and I will clean up this mess. We demand that Russia withdraws from Ukraine. We demand that they quit bullying the EU.

    In exchange we give them Greenland.
  • As a side note, I have an underground power cable from the house into the garage. It was working fine for five decades. Suddenly, already two times, the differential automate went off cutting the electricity in the garage. It seems to me it may mean that there is somewhere a leakage of electricity into the ground.

    I switched the automate back on. But after these two times it stopped. Still I am a bit uneasy. Digging anew a trench to the garage to replace the cable would be for me a monumental effort.

    • When you inevitably wind up having to dig it up, rebury it in conduit. Direct burial cable is a Bad Plan (tm). Conduit is cheaper than replacement.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Max_W ( 812974 )
        Thank you for the advice. It seems to be in a plastic conduit, but it is a bit narrow and the cable is kind of stiff. It was installed in 70's. I have a feeling that I won't be able to pull it out.

        If I have to remake it, I will probably use a conduit of somewhat larger diameter. It will be easier to service and a future expansion may be possible. For example, a LAN cable too.
  • Start seizing ships suspected of such operations. Then start seizing assets to cover repair costs. Then say that another "accident' will be considered an ankle bite attack by the Russians and will result in NATO joining Ukraine to kick their butts directly back to the internationally recognized 2013 borders. Yes that means kicking them out of Crimea as well.

    When facing that much force Putin will either be forced to back down or watch his troops flee. One stipulation would be that Ukraine give back Kursk.

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