Sawt Falasteen - Norway seizes Russian-crewed ship over suspected cable damage

The vessel's owner has rejected any wrongdoing.

Nations around the Baltic Sea have scrambled to bolster their defences since the suspected sabotage of undersea cables in recent months, with some observers blaming Russia.

The Norway-flagged cargo ship, the Silver Dania, was sailing between Saint Petersburg and Murmansk when a Norwegian coast guard ship stopped it on Thursday evening off the coast of Tromso in northern Norway.

"The ship is suspected to have been involved in serious damage to a fibre cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden," police said.

"Police are now on board the ship to search, carry out interrogations and secure evidence," it said, adding that the crew and shipowner were cooperating with police.

"The entire crew on board is Russian," they added.

Sweden and Latvia announced on January 26 that a fibre optic cable -- owned by Latvia's state radio and television centre (LVRTC) and linking the Swedish island of Gotland to Ventspils in Latvia -- had been damaged.

The Silver Dania is owned by Norwegian shipping company Silver Sea.

The shipowner told AFP the vessel had nothing to do with the damaged cable.

"We sailed near Gotland," Silver Sea boss Tormod Fossmark said, "but we did not cast anchor."

"We did nothing wrong," he added. "Norwegian authorities have brought us into port to clear us of any involvement."

Fossmark said the Russian crew had "sailed for us for a long time".

"They did nothing wrong," he insisted, saying he was "100-percent sure".

- Bulgarian ship under investigation -

The Swedish coast guard seized a Bulgarian ship, the Malta-flagged Vezhen, off Sweden's southeastern coast on January 26.

It is suspected of damaging the cable in question.

Swedish prosecutors opened an investigation into "aggravated sabotage".

Images of the vessel published by Swedish media appeared to show one of Vezhen's anchors had a broken arm.

Alexander Kalchev, CEO of Navibulgar, the Bulgarian maritime shipping company that operates the Vezhen, denied any involvement in the damaged cable.

"I am convinced that we cannot say... that this was a malicious act," he said.

But the Swedish prosecutor in the case, Mats Ljungqvist, told Swedish news agency TT on Friday he was confident the Vezhen was involved.

"I think I can say, on very solid grounds, that it is this ship that has damaged the cable," he said.

"Our work is continuing. We're working hard. The ship is still seized and there are various investigative measures being taken, including technical examinations," he said.

The incident is the latest in a series of cases of cables being damaged in the Baltic Sea, amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Since the invasion, Finland and Sweden, which both border the Baltic Sea, have dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO as concern about the region's security mounts.

In September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe, the cause of which has yet to be determined.

In October 2023, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship.

In November 2024, two telecom cables in Swedish waters were severed, and on December 25, the Estlink 2 electricity cable and four telecom cables linking Finland and Estonia were damaged.

In mid-January, NATO launched a Baltic Sea patrol mission to secure critical underwater infrastructure.

Frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, submarines and drones are involved in the Baltic Sentry patrols.

Y.Zaher--SF-PST