By Mark Trevelyan
(Reuters) -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 mentioned on Tuesday.
Finnish investigators have already mentioned they believe the vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, of inflicting critical harm to the close by Balticconnector fuel pipeline by dragging its anchor over the ocean mattress throughout the identical voyage.
Two different Baltic telecoms cables have been broken on the identical evening of Oct. 7 alongside the route that the ship was travelling, in line with 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 warfare. Investigators have but to ascertain who was accountable for blowing up Russia’s Nord Stream fuel pipelines below the Baltic final yr.
A Rostelecom spokesperson, responding to emailed questions from Reuters, mentioned the double armored fiber optic cable, with a thickness of 40.4 mm (1.6 inches), had been reduce utterly.
Requested if the corporate believed the Chinese language ship had brought on the harm, the spokesperson mentioned: “On the time of the harm to the fiber optic cable, the Chinese language ship NewNew Polar Bear was at some extent with coordinates coinciding with the route of the communication line.”
China has mentioned it’s prepared to supply vital info 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 a press release earlier on Tuesday, Rostelecom publicly acknowledged the harm to its cable for the primary time, describing it as an accident and with out mentioning the trigger.
It mentioned the location of the harm was solely 28 km (17 miles) from the place the Balticconnector fuel pipeline was ruptured quickly afterwards.
TRAIL OF DAMAGE
In whole, three Baltic telecoms cables and one pipeline have 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 mentioned the harm 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 harm and floated the chance {that a} ship’s anchor might have brought on 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 fuel pipeline. They haven’t concluded whether or not the harm was brought on by chance or intentionally.
Operator Gasgrid has mentioned the pipeline may very well be out of fee till April or longer.
Rostelecom mentioned 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 situations.
The cable runs from St Petersburg to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. The corporate mentioned customers had not been affected as a result of knowledge was transmitted through terrestrial routes and backup satellite tv for pc channels.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan in LondonAdditional reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, Anne Kauranen and Terje SolsvikEditing by Invoice Berkrot and Matthew Lewis)
