Norwegian police have seized a Russian-crewed ship on suspicion of being involved in causing “serious damage” to a fiber cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden.
Troms Police in northern Norway located the Silver Dania ship on Thursday evening, following a request from Latvian authorities, and it was brought into the port of Tromso Friday morning, according to a police statement.
“There is suspicion that the ship has been involved in serious damage to a fiber cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden. The police are conducting an operation on the ship to search, conduct interviews, and secure evidence,” the statement said.
The Silver Dania is Norwegian-registered and Norwegian-owned, police said, but the crew on board is Russian.
The ship was sailing between St. Petersburg and Murmansk in Russia, police said.
He added that authorities had not yet found any links connecting the ship with the damaged cable, and the crew has been allowed to prepare the Silver Dania to set sail Friday night.
The incident marks the second ship to be seized on suspicion of carrying out sabotage in the last week, after the Swedish Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed Sunday it had boarded a ship following suspected damage to the communications cable running between Sweden and Latvia.
Latvia said the damage was likely caused by external forces.
This event was the latest in a string of incidents since late 2022, with damage being caused to Europe’s infrastructure running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea — pipes carrying natural gas and cables transporting electricity and data.
Such incidents have become more frequent over the past couple of years, raising suspicions they are the result of sabotage and triggering a flurry of investigations by European officials — with some openly pointing fingers at Moscow.
Russia has denied allegations of involvement in underwater cable sabotage. The Russian Embassy in London last week said NATO was building up naval and air forces under the “fictitious pretext of the ‘Russian threat.’”