A Swedish Navy ship has found and raised the anchor of the Eagle S vessel, which is suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 submarine electric cable.

Yle reported on this.

The operation was reportedly carried out on January 6. The anchor was discovered at the western end of the furrow it left after being dragged along the seabed.

The Finnish Central Criminal Investigation Department is to start examining the anchor today, January 7.

The Swedish search and rescue ship Belos (A214), designed to rescue submarine crews, assisted in surveying the seabed.

Belos is equipped with cranes, locators, special unmanned underwater vehicles, and, if necessary, a small URF (Ubåtsräddningsfarkost) submarine.

Eagle S

On December 26, Militarnyi reported that Finland boarded and detained the Eagle S tanker suspected of damaging the cable.

The Finnish Border Guard intercepted the tanker on December 25 after the Estlink 2 submarine cable was damaged in the Gulf of Finland.

The vessel, which was transporting oil from Russia to Egypt, is suspected of deliberately cutting communications between the two countries, as it was passing close to them at the time of the incident.

Law enforcement officers then discovered that one of its anchors had been torn off and that it appeared to have been used to sever the cable.

According to the Marinetraffic monitoring service, which tracks ship movements using transponder signals, the Eagle S tanker was headed to Egypt and clearly slowed down while passing the area above the cable.

Sabotage in the Baltic Sea

In November, the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 was seen in a similar incident when it passed over a submarine data cable between Finland, Germany, Sweden, and Lithuania around the time they were severed.

This cable is the only one that runs directly to Central Europe.

Later, the vessel and its crew were detained by a Royal Danish Navy ship for questioning, as well as a detailed examination of their course and actions in the vicinity of the telecommunications cables. It was reported that a Russian citizen Alexander Stechentsev is the vessel’s captain.

The Wall Street Journal later reported, citing anonymous sources associated with the investigation, that it was Russian intelligence that ordered the ship’s captain to damage the cables with the anchor.

According to the newspaper, the Russian corvette Mercury arrived in the Kattegat area and conducted reconnaissance for the Yi Peng 3, after which it transmitted secret information to the headquarters in Kaliningrad.

The WSJ article notes that NATO has faced difficulties in responding to the events in the Baltic Sea, with authorities avoiding direct accusations of Russia to prevent panic.