International investigators reportedly believe that the crew aboard the Yi Peng 3, a bulk carrier filled with Russian fertilizer, dragged its anchor for more than 100 miles across the Baltic seabed, damaging the cables running through it. Two different internet links — one between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania, and another between Finland and Germany — stopped operating earlier this month, prompting an investigation by authorities in the four countries and other nations, according to the Diary.
Investigators are now trying to determine whether Russian intelligence officials ordered the cable's destruction, the outlet reports, although Russia has denied any wrongdoing. Anonymous sources who spoke with him Diary He said the ship's owner, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, is cooperating with investigators. He Diary says several unnamed Western intelligence and law enforcement officials do not believe the Chinese government was part of the alleged plot.
It is not the first time European officials have suspected Russia of sabotaging underwater infrastructure since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But the officials have hesitated to openly accuse the Kremlin of interference, the Diary reports, partly out of fear of a further escalation of tensions between Russia and Europe.
