The cables on the Gulf of Finland, located between Helsinki and Tallinn, were damaged on New Year's Eve last year. It is suspected that the Fitburg cargo ship, which was sailing from St. Petersburg to the Israeli city of Haifa with a cargo of Russian steel, was responsible for the incident. The cables – as research showed – were probably broken by dragging the anchor and its chain along the bottom for a distance of several dozen kilometers.
At the beginning of the year, it was reported that the suspect in the case was an Azerbaijani citizen, and a travel ban was imposed on three other crew members, also consisting of citizens of Russia, Kazakhstan and Georgia. The police have not yet revealed the positions of these people on the ship or whether the suspects are the same people.
Circumstances of cable damage
The cable was damaged in Estonia's economic zone, but some damage also affected Finnish territorial waters. Finnish services, including the border guard and the army brought Fitburg, flying the flag of the Caribbean country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, towards the coast of Finland and for several days the unit anchored near Helsinki for the purposes of the investigation.
Investigators have not yet ruled out the hypothesis that the cable was intentionally damaged. An inspection of the vessel showed that Fitburg, built in 2022, is in “normal” technical condition for its age and complies with the requirements of relevant international conventions. No defects that could threaten navigation safety were found.
