Conflicts

Two telecommunications cables have been damaged in the Baltic Sea and, according to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, it was an act of pure “sabotage”.

The two cables are located between Finland and Germany, and between Sweden and Lithuania. According to initial observations, only an “external impact” can explain the damage to the equipment.

It's not an accident

The German Defense Minister, on the sidelines of a meeting with the defense ministers of the 27 EU countries in Brussels, said: “Nobody believes that these cables were cut by accident […] We have to assume […] that this is sabotage.” Before adding: “I don't believe in the versions of anchors (of ships) that would have accidentally caused damage to these cables.”

In a joint statement, the German and Finnish governments had already mentioned the Russian threat and “hybrid warfare”. Since this latest incident, concerns have been growing.

The Baltic region, a maritime area shared by the Nordic and Baltic countries, Poland and Germany, has been the scene of several incidents of this kind in recent months, reports L’Indépendant. These same countries fear threats of destabilization attributed directly to Russia.

For its part, Moscow considered it “laughable” and “absurd” to accuse Russia of breaking these cables.

(MH with Manon Pierre - Source: L’Indépendant - Picture: Vladimir Putin’s interview for TASS News Agency by TASS News Agency kremlin.ru via Wikicommons under license Creative commons CC-BY-4.0)