Finland allows Fitburg vessel suspected of cable damage to leave its waters

Finnish police have authorized the cargo vessel Fitburg, which is suspected of damaging an undersea telecommunications cable in the Gulf of Finland, to leave Finnish territorial waters after completing investigative measures, the authorities said on their website.

The vessel departed the port of Kantvik at around 11:00 a.m. under escort from the Finnish Coast Guard.

A day earlier, on January 11, the Helsinki District Court ordered the detention of one Fitburg crew member. Several other sailors were barred from leaving Finland.

The Fitburg is suspected of damaging an undersea cable belonging to telecommunications company Elisa during the night of December 31 in Estonia’s exclusive economic zone. Finnish authorities detained the 132-meter cargo ship after discovering that it had been sailing with its anchor lowered.

The vessel was operating under the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and was en route from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Haifa, Israel, carrying a cargo of Russian steel. The ship is operated by a Turkish company. Fourteen crew members — citizens of Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan — were detained, and the vessel was taken to the Finnish port of Kantvik.

Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation is treating the case as suspected intentional damage to property and disruption of telecommunications. On January 2, Finnish investigators established a joint investigation team with Estonia.

• Former deputy head of Ukraine’s Security Service, Viktor Yahun, said Russia is increasingly turning its so-called "shadow fleet" in the Baltic Sea into a tool of hybrid warfare against NATO.
• At the same time, Andres Vosman, a former analyst with Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, argues that such incidents are more likely the result of a combination of circumstances rather than deliberate hybrid operations.