Sweden rules out sabotage in Baltic undersea data cable rupture and releases a ship

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Sweden rules out sabotage in Baltic undersea data cable rupture and releases a ship

Updated 7:44 AM EST, February 3, 2025

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish prosecutors decided Monday to release a vessel belonging to a Bulgarian shipping company after ruling out initial suspicions that sabotage caused damage to an undersea fiber-optic cable between Sweden and Latvia.

Damage to the cable running between the Latvian city of Ventspils and the Swedish island of Gotland was detected on Jan. 26 and the vessel was seized by Swedish authorities later that day. This was one of a string of recent incidents of ruptured undersea cables that have heightened fears of Russian sabotage and spying in the region.

An investigation into a possible role of the Vezhen ship “has clarified that it is not a case of gross sabotage,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

Senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said the ship did cause the cable break, but after crime-scene investigations, analyses of confiscated equipment, and the collection of testimonies, “we can say with certainty that this is not a case of sabotage.”

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/norway-baltic-sweden-latvia-cable-ship-bulgaria-051018edb3b3c8a8a374cbf98f9b6927

[Wicked Blue]

1. So all 11 cable cuts in recent months were accidents?

Sounds suspicious to me.