On December 26, Finland discovered disruptions in the operation of four telecommunications cables connecting the country with Germany and Estonia. The Russian trail was not without its consequences.
On December 26, Finland discovered disruptions in the operation of four telecommunications cables connecting the country with Germany and Estonia. The Russian trail was not without its consequences.
The Central Criminal Police of Finland reported that a trace of an anchor several dozen kilometers long was discovered at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, writes the Finnish publication Yle.
"The trail stretches for tens of kilometers. It has not yet been possible to determine exactly where the anchor was dropped," the police said.
Police Inspector Sami Paila said that underwater investigations conducted at the site of the Estlink 2 cable damage are gradually clarifying the picture.
"The trail ends where the ship lifted the anchor chain, and from this point to the east the trail from the drag extends for several tens, if not almost a hundred kilometers," he said.
Paila notes that law enforcement already has a preliminary idea of what happened. They assume that the trail is the anchor track of the Eagle S.
"We were able to find out this thanks to underwater research. The work was carried out in cooperation between the Border Guard and the Central Criminal Police, and I can say that we have a preliminary understanding of what happened in the sea and how this anchor track was formed," says Paila. Due to bad weather conditions, the seabed research had to be suspended. They will be resumed when the wind weakens.
Earlier, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that an underwater power cable connecting the country with Estonia failed on Christmas Day .
At the time of the incident, two ships were sailing in the area of the cable. One of them was the oil tanker Eagle S, which is believed to be part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet. Finland later boarded the ship, the coast guard took command and directed the tanker into Finnish waters. The Finnish customs service said it had confiscated the ship's cargo.
According to the specialized publication Lloyd's List, high-tech equipment that could potentially be used for espionage purposes was found on the tanker Eagle S of the so-called shadow fleet of Russia. Also, according to the sources of the publication, an unauthorized person was on the tanker along with equipment for listening and recording.
