Latvia, Sweden Investigate as Baltic Sea Data Cable Damaged
(Bloomberg) -- A subsea data cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged early Sunday, sparking a criminal investigation, a third such incident in the Baltic Sea in the past three months.
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The damage to the link between Ventspils in Latvia and Sweden’s Gotland island has not affected clients — with alternative transmission routes deployed — Latvia’s State Radio and Television Center, a data transmission provider, said in a statement. Prime Minister Evika Silina convened a meeting of ministers to discuss the incident.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated, and the authorities are in contact with international partners, Silina said in a posting on the X platform. NATO is also involved in the investigation, she added.
“At the moment there are grounds to believe that the cable is significantly damaged and that the damage is due to external influences,” the Baltic News Service cited Vineta Sprugaine, spokeswoman for LSRTC, as saying.
Latvia’s armed forces sent a patrol vessel to inspect a ship allegedly involved in the incident.
The episode is the latest in a spate of similar incidents in the Baltic Sea. In December, an oil tanker linked to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet was suspected of damaging undersea links with a loose anchor. A month earlier, a Chinese ship was implicated in separate incident.
In another posting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered “full solidarity with the EU countries of the Baltic Sea.”
“The resilience and security of our critical infrastructure is a top priority,” von der Leyen stressed.
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--With assistance from Aaron Eglitis and Kevin Whitelaw.
(Updates with EC president’s comments in last two paragraphs.)
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