Finland Detains 2 Georgian Nationals Over Undersea Cable Damage

Finnish authorities detained two Georgian nationals aboard a ship on Monday that is believed to have damaged the EstLink 2 undersea power cable between Finland and Estonia on Dec. 25.

Radio Liberty said the two worked as captain and crew aboard the ship, citing comments from Georgia’s Maritime Transport Agency.

Finnish authorities boarded and seized Eagle S, an oil tanker believed to be operating as part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” that transports Russian oil bypassing Western sanctions, a day after the undersea cable was damaged. The vessel had departed from a Russian port before the incident.

Kyiv Post reported on Dec. 30 that Eagle S was being detained near Porvoo in Finland, while its crew – made up of citizens of Georgia and India – were interrogated.

Preliminary investigations found a seabed track dozens of kilometers long, with Eagle S having reduced speed around the time when “interference was detected in the electrical power cable,” Radio Liberty reported, citing the global ship monitoring website MarineTraffic.

Investigators have yet to find the anchor, the publication said.

Following the incident, an analyst for Lloyd’s List claimed the ship was kitted out with special transmitting and receiving devices used to monitor naval activity.

The incident followed numerous similar occurrences of undersea cable damage in recent years, including the Arelion telecommunications cable between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania that was cut on Nov. 17.

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The Eagle S ship, sailing under the Cook Islands flag, had already been seized by Finnish authorities on Dec. 28 as part of its criminal investigation into suspected sabotage.

The next day, the C-Lion 1 submarine cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock was cut south of Sweden’s Oland island.

Sweden said on Jan. 4 that it would send a submarine rescue vessel to aid Finland’s investigations following the latest incident.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has described the latest episode as a “wakeup call” to bolster defenses and rejected notions that the events are mere coincidence.

“Crews are leaving anchors in the water, dragging them for kilometers along the seafloor for no apparent reason, and then losing them when pulling them up,” she said.

“It’s more than difficult to still believe in coincidences. This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us.”

The EU is set to step up sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleets after the incident.