Swedish prosecutors announced last night that they have launched a preliminary investigation into suspicion of "sabotage" under aggravating circumstances and have ordered the detention of a ship in the Baltic Sea suspected of damaging an undersea fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse reported, quoted by BTA.
"Several authorities are involved in the investigation, including the national police operations department, the coast guard and the armed forces," said Mats Ljungqvist, senior prosecutor in the national security unit.
The Swedish coast guard confirmed to the newspaper. "Express" that it is on the scene near the vessel, which the newspaper identified as the Maltese-flagged "Vejen", anchored near the port of Karlskrona.
"We are directly on the scene of the detained vessel and are taking measures in accordance with the prosecutor's decision," said Matthias Lindholm, a spokesman for the coast guard.
According to "Vesselfinder", the vessel had left the Russian port of Ust-Luga several days earlier and was sailing between Gotland and Latvia at the time the damage is believed to have occurred. The Latvian state radio and television center reported yesterday that it had detected interference in data transmission on the cable running from the city of Ventspils to the Swedish island of Gotland and concluded that it had been cut. The outlet added that it was able to operate using other data transmission routes while taking steps to repair the cable.
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silinja wrote in "Ex" that her government was "working together with our Swedish allies and NATO to investigate the incident, including patrolling the area, as well as inspecting the ships that were in the area".
Her Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristershon, told "Ex" that at least one cable belonging to a "Latvian legal entity" was believed to have been damaged. He added that he had spoken to Silinja yesterday.
A number of attacks on energy and communications infrastructure in this maritime area have been carried out in recent months. According to experts and politicians, these attacks are part of the "hybrid war" that Russia is waging against the West, AFP recalls.