Swedish authorities seize ship suspected of damaging undersea communication cable

Swedish prosecutors have impounded a ship suspected of intentionally damaging a Baltic Sea communications cable running between Latvia and Sweden, the Swedish Prosecution Authority announced on Sunday.

The agency said that a preliminary investigation had been opened into “suspected serious sabotage” but that due to the ongoing nature of the investigation it was unable to disclose the name of the ship in question or any further details about the case.

The Latvian Navy had previously identified a vessel, the Michalis San, as suspicious after it was sighted near the Latvian-owned cable that was damaged on Sunday morning in Swedish territorial waters.

According to Latvian news outlet LSM, the vessel Michalis San, which was en route to Russia, had been identified as suspicious by the Latvian Navy after it was sighted near the Latvian-owned cable that was damaged on Sunday morning.

LSM quoted Lativian Navy commander Maris Polencs as saying that they had identified “no suspicious activity on board and no damage to the ship’s anchor”, a tell-tale sign of anchor “dragging”, the easiest way to damage undersea cables, but that they were continuing to monitor the movements of other vessels in the area. It has not been confirmed whether the seized ship in question is the Michalis San.

Similar cases of sea cable sabotage in the Baltic Sea were reported in November and December, with Finland seizing Eagle S, an oil tanker that has been linked to Russia’s shadow fleet, in December, suspecting the vessel of damaging Estlink 2, a power cable which connects Estonia and Finland, by dragging its anchor across the seabed for several kilometres.

The leaders of eight Baltic countries met in Helsinki earlier in January to announce the establishment of a Baltic Sentry, a joint military operation designed to protect the Baltic Sea’s underwater infrastructure following a series of suspected Russian sabotage attacks, stressing in a joint statement that Russia’s shadow fleet posed “a particular threat to the maritime and environmental security in the Baltic sea region and globally”.