Finland says Russia-linked ship damaged cables, pipelines in Baltic

THE WATCH STAFF

Finland and Sweden are accusing a Russia-linked ship of damaging undersea gas pipelines and communication cables in the Baltic Sea this year.

The NewNew Polar Bear is part of a four-ship convoy that has traversed the Northern Sea Route since late October 2023. It is expected to be the last voyage before the Arctic route freezes over for the winter.

Before its Arctic journey, the NewNew Polar Bear was in the area when the infrastructure damage occurred in the Baltic.

In a press release on October 24, The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (FNBI) officially named the 169-meter ship, which flies under the Hong Kong flag, responsible for the October 8 damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia.

The ship’s owners are linked to Torgmoll, a Russia-registered company with offices in Moscow and Shanghai, reports the Barents Observer, a Norwegian news outlet.

The ship’s operators have been uncooperative in the investigation, which revealed that an anchor drag between 1.5 and 4 meters caused the damage, according to the October 24 FNBI news release.

Finnish authorities said they would have made an arrest in October had it not been in international waters.

Photos shared on social media indicate that the ship is fully loaded with containers on its present voyage.

The NewNew Polar Bear might also have been involved in damaging a communications cable between Sweden and Estonia.

The Swedish Ministry of Defence confirmed in an October 19 news release that the damage to the cable appeared “to have occurred in close connection” with the damage to the Finnish-Estonian gas pipeline and communications cable.