The North Atlantic Alliance will strengthen its military presence in the Baltic Sea, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Friday after the disruption of the submarine electric cable connecting Finland and Estonia. TASR informs about it according to the AFP agency. “I spoke to (Finnish President) Alexander Stubb about the ongoing investigation into possible sabotage of undersea cables being conducted by Finland. I expressed my full solidarity and support,” wrote Rutte on the social network.
Stubb said that the strengthening of NATO and EU measures against the so-called shadow fleet that transports Russian oil in violation of sanctions. According to him, Finland and Estonia agreed that they wanted a greater presence of the Alliance in their region, especially near critical infrastructure.
Finland seized the Cook Islands-registered Eagle S oil tanker on Thursday. It sailed from a Russian port and is suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 undersea power cable and four internet links in the Baltic Sea on Wednesday.
The repair of the electric cable will take several months, and its interruption can complicate the supply of electricity during the winter, the Finnish company Fingrid said. Only the Estlink 1 cable, which has a smaller capacity, is in operation between the two countries.
The Estonian Armed Forces launched a naval operation to protect the Estlink 1 cable on Friday. “If there is a threat to critical undersea infrastructure in our region, there will be a response,” wrote Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna on the social network.
Submarine cables often have technical failures and outages caused by accidents. In the Baltic Sea, however, there have been a number of suspected malfunctions of electrical and telecommunication cables and gas pipelines in recent years. It is believed that it could have been sabotage.
