A Russian fiber optic cable below the Baltic Sea was utterly severed final month when a Chinese language container ship handed over it, state firm Rostelecom stated on Tuesday.
Finnish investigators have already stated they think the vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, of inflicting severe injury to the close by Balticconnector gasoline pipeline by dragging its anchor over the ocean mattress throughout the identical voyage.
Two different Baltic telecoms cables had been broken on the identical evening of Oct. 7 alongside the route that the ship was travelling, based on delivery knowledge reviewed by Reuters.
The incidents have highlighted the vulnerability of marine cables and pipelines at a time when safety fears are operating excessive due to the Ukraine battle. Investigators have but to ascertain who was accountable for blowing up Russia’s Nord Stream gasoline pipelines below the Baltic final yr.
A Rostelecom spokesperson, responding to emailed questions from Reuters, stated the double armored fiber optic cable, with a thickness of 40.4 mm (1.6 inches), had been minimize utterly.
Requested if the corporate believed the Chinese language ship had induced the injury, the spokesperson stated: “On the time of the injury to the fiber optic cable, the Chinese language ship NewNew Polar Bear was at a degree with coordinates coinciding with the route of the communication line.”
China has stated it’s keen to offer mandatory data on the incident in accordance with worldwide regulation. NewNew Delivery, the proprietor and operator of the NewNew Polar Bear, has beforehand declined to remark when contacted by Reuters.
In an announcement earlier on Tuesday, Rostelecom publicly acknowledged the injury to its cable for the primary time, describing it as an accident and with out mentioning the trigger.
It stated the positioning of the injury was solely 28 km (17 miles) from the place the Balticconnector gasoline pipeline was ruptured quickly afterwards.
Path of harm
In complete, three Baltic telecoms cables and one pipeline had been broken within the area of lower than 9 hours.
Information from delivery intelligence agency MarineTraffic, reviewed by Reuters, confirmed that the NewNew Polar Bear handed over a Swedish-Estonian telecoms cable at 1513 GMT, then over the Russian cable at round 2020 GMT, the Balticconnector at 2220 GMT and a Finland-Estonia telecoms line at 2349 GMT.
Rostelecom stated the injury to its cable was recorded at 2030 GMT.
Way back to Oct. 13, President Vladimir Putin dismissed as “full garbage” strategies that Russia might need been responsible for the Balticconnector injury and floated the likelihood {that a} ship’s anchor might have induced it.
On Tuesday, the Kremlin referred additional inquiries to the Communications Ministry, which didn’t reply to a Reuters request for remark.
Finnish police introduced on Oct. 24 that that they had discovered a ship’s anchor close to the damaged gasoline pipeline. They haven’t concluded whether or not the injury was induced unintentionally or intentionally.
Operator Gasgrid has stated the pipeline could possibly be out of fee till April or longer.
Rostelecom stated a specialised vessel had began repairs on the fiber optic cable on Sunday and that the work was anticipated to take 10 days, relying on climate circumstances.
The cable runs from St Petersburg to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. The corporate stated customers had not been affected as a result of knowledge was transmitted through terrestrial routes and backup satellite tv for pc channels.
(Reuters – Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; Further reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, Anne Kauranen and Terje Solsvik; Enhancing by Invoice Berkrot and Matthew Lewis)
