Latest news with #SilverSea
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
Norway releases Russian-crewed ship after cable damage
Police in Norway said Friday they had released a Russian-crewed cargo ship seized over suspected involvement in damage to a fibre-optic cable in the Baltic Sea, having found no evidence linking it to the incident. It was the latest development in a series of suspected acts of sabotage that many officials believe form part of a Russian "hybrid war" against Western allies of Ukraine since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022. The Norway-flagged "Silver Dania" was sailing between Saint Petersburg and Murmansk when a Norwegian coastguard ship stopped it late Thursday off the coast of Tromso in northern Norway. The seizure came after Sweden and Latvia said Sunday that a fibre-optic cable linking the Swedish island of Gotland to Ventspils in Latvia had been damaged -- the latest of several similar incidents in the Baltic in recent months. "No findings have been made linking the ship to the act," police attorney Ronny Jorgensen said in a statement. "The investigation will continue, but we see no reason for the ship to remain in Tromso any longer," he added. Nations around the Baltic Sea have scrambled to bolster their defences over the suspected sabotage of undersea cables in recent months. - 'Nothing wrong' - The ship's owner rejected any wrongdoing as Norwegian police searched the ship and questioned the all-Russian crew, following a seizure request from Latvia. Jorgensen, the police prosecutor, had said a crew member was suspected of involvement in the cable damage, which he described as "aggravated vandalism". The Silver Dania is owned by Norwegian shipping company Silver Sea, whose chief Tormod Fossmark told AFP that "We sailed near Gotland... but we did not cast anchor. "We did nothing wrong," he added. "Norwegian authorities have brought us into port to clear us of any involvement." The Russian embassy in Oslo had told AFP by email that none of the sailors had been placed under arrest nor had they contacted the embassy for assistance. - Bulgarian ship under investigation - On Sunday, the Swedish coastguard seized a Bulgarian ship, the Malta-flagged "Vezhen", off Sweden's southeastern coast in connection with the same cable incident. Swedish prosecutors have opened an investigation into "aggravated sabotage", and images of the vessel published by Swedish media appeared to show that one of its anchors had a broken arm. Alexander Kalchev, CEO of Navibulgar, the Bulgarian maritime shipping company that operates the Vezhen, denied any involvement. "I am convinced that we cannot say... that this was a malicious act," he said. But prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist told Swedish news agency TT on Friday that he was confident the Vezhen was involved. "I think I can say, on very solid grounds, that it is this ship that has damaged the cable," he said. "Our work is continuing... The ship is still seized and there are various investigative measures being taken, including technical examinations," he said. The incident is the latest in a series affecting cables in the Baltic Sea amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Finland and Sweden, which both border the Baltic Sea, have dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO as concern about the region's security mounts. Russia had warned both countries of repercussions if they joined the alliance. In September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe. The cause is yet to be determined. In October 2023, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship. In November 2024, two telecom cables in Swedish waters were severed, and on December 25, the Estlink 2 electricity cable and four telecom cables linking Finland and Estonia were damaged. In response, NATO launched in mid-January a Baltic Sea patrol mission to secure critical underwater infrastructure. Frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, submarines and drones are involved in the Baltic Sentry patrols. phy/js/jj
Russia Today
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Russian MP reacts to cable sabotage accusations
Western authorities are constantly finding new reasons to levy accusations at Russia, Duma MP Svetlana Zhurova told Russian media on Friday. Norwegian police have detained a cargo ship, suspecting it of having 'something to do' with an underwater cable in the Baltic Sea that had been damaged earlier in January. Police alleged that someone on board the fully Russian-crewed vessel could be linked to the incident, without providing any evidence. Moscow has no reason to damage any infrastructure in Western Europe now that relations between Russia and the EU are already strained, Zhurova said. 'Why would we need this now, when all the issues with [the EU] are getting aggravated?' she said, adding that accusations against Moscow apparently seem to be a convenient narrative the Western governments are willing to feed the media. According to the MP, investigators should look into whether it was a 'mistake' by the crew or 'just another propagandist fake news story.' Read more NATO nation probes new Baltic cable 'sabotage' The cargo vessel in question, the Silver Dania, had been sailing between St. Petersburg and Murmansk. It is owned by SilverSea, a Norwegian shipping company which specializes in transporting frozen fish and goods by sea, according to its website. On Friday, Norway's Troms District police department said in a statement that it had 'brought in' the vessel in response to a 'legal request from the Latvian authorities.' Last Sunday, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said that a critical undersea fiber optic cable connecting her country and Sweden's Gotland Island had been damaged. She added that the cause of the damage was 'most likely external.' The police 'suspect that someone on board the ship had something to do with the cable incident in the Baltic Sea,' a police attorney, Ronny Jorgensen, told the local media. SilverSea owner and CEO Tormod Fossmark has denied any wrongdoing. According to the businessman, his company first received a request from the foreign ministry on Sunday to cooperate with the authorities on a certain case. 'We hadn't heard anything else before the Coast Guard stopped us and asked us to come into Tromso,' Fossmark told the local media. Read more NATO steps up patrols in Baltic Sea According to the SilverSea CEO, 'hundreds' of vessels sail past the area where the cable was damaged 'all the time.' 'We were driving at full speed and didn't have the anchor out. We haven't done anything wrong. We didn't damage the cable,' he added. Both the company and the ship's crew 'are cooperating with the police, and voluntarily came to Tromso,' Deputy Police Chief Einar Sparboe Lysnes told a press conference on Friday. No Russian citizens have been arrested, Moscow's embassy in Oslo told RT in response to a request for comment. The Russian diplomats are 'keeping the situation under control,' the statement said, adding that the police informed the crew members about their right to contact their embassy or consulate, but not one of them has reached out to the diplomatic missions so far. Following Latvia's initial statement about the damage to the cable, Sweden detained a vessel in connection to what it called 'aggravated sabotage.' Stockholm did not name the ship in question but reports suggest that it is the Malta-flagged Vezhen, which recently departed from Russia's Ust-Luga port and was operating near Gotland and Latvia at the time of the incident. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also said earlier this week that his nation was working on the issue together with Latvia and NATO.
The Independent
31-01-2025
- The Independent
Norway stops a ship suspected of involvement in damage to a Baltic Sea cable
A Norwegian-owned and Russian-crewed ship that authorities suspect may have been involved in damage to an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland has been stopped off Norway, police said Friday. The Silver Dania was stopped on Thursday evening and brought into the port of Tromsø in northern Norway on Friday morning by a Norwegian coast guard vessel for inspection, Norwegian police said in a statement. They said that followed a request from Latvian authorities and a ruling by a Norwegian court. Police said there's suspicion that the ship, which was sailing between the Russian ports of St. Petersburg and Murmansk when it was detained, had been involved earlier in serious cable damage that was discovered last weekend in the Baltic Sea. The authorities didn't elaborate, but said they were searching the ship and conducting interviews. Tormod Fossmark, CEO of the SilverSea company that owns the ship, denied that the vessel caused any damage when it had sailed through the area of the cable, and said that the company was cooperating with authorities on what it considered a 'serious' matter. 'We have no involvement in this whatsoever," Fossmark told The Associated Press. "We did not have any anchors out or do anything, so that will be confirmed today' in the investigation, he said. He stressed that she ship's tracking data shows no irregularities in its journey. Fossmark said he hoped the vessel, which wasn't yet carrying any cargo on Friday, would be able to sail onward later in the day. Damage to the data transmission cable running from Ventspils, Latvia, to Gotland was detected on Sunday. Later that day, Swedish prosecutors announced that they had opened a preliminary investigation into suspected sabotage and ordered the detention of a vessel suspected of damaging the cable, the Malta-flagged Vezhen. That ship's Bulgarian owner said that it was possible that the Vezhen had accidentally caused a cable to break, but dismissed any possibility of sabotage or any other action on the part of the crew.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
Norway seizes Russian-crewed ship over suspected cable damage
Norwegian police said on Friday they had seized a Norwegian-owned ship at Latvia's request over its suspected involvement in damage done to a Baltic Sea cable. The vessel's owner has rejected any wrongdoing. Nations around the Baltic Sea have scrambled to bolster their defences since the suspected sabotage of undersea cables in recent months, with some observers blaming Russia. The Norway-flagged cargo ship, the Silver Dania, was sailing between Saint Petersburg and Murmansk when a Norwegian coast guard ship stopped it on Thursday evening off the coast of Tromso in northern Norway. "The ship is suspected to have been involved in serious damage to a fibre cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden," police said. "Police are now on board the ship to search, carry out interrogations and secure evidence," it said, adding that the crew and shipowner were cooperating with police. "The entire crew on board is Russian," they added. Sweden and Latvia announced on January 26 that a fibre optic cable -- owned by Latvia's state radio and television centre (LVRTC) and linking the Swedish island of Gotland to Ventspils in Latvia -- had been damaged. The Silver Dania is owned by Norwegian shipping company Silver Sea. The shipowner told AFP the vessel had nothing to do with the damaged cable. "We sailed near Gotland," Silver Sea boss Tormod Fossmark said, "but we did not cast anchor." "We did nothing wrong," he added. "Norwegian authorities have brought us into port to clear us of any involvement." Fossmark said the Russian crew had "sailed for us for a long time". "They did nothing wrong," he insisted, saying he was "100-percent sure". - Bulgarian ship under investigation - The Swedish coast guard seized a Bulgarian ship, the Malta-flagged Vezhen, off Sweden's southeastern coast on January 26. It is suspected of damaging the cable in question. Swedish prosecutors opened an investigation into "aggravated sabotage". Images of the vessel published by Swedish media appeared to show one of Vezhen's anchors had a broken arm. Alexander Kalchev, CEO of Navibulgar, the Bulgarian maritime shipping company that operates the Vezhen, denied any involvement in the damaged cable. "I am convinced that we cannot say... that this was a malicious act," he said. But the Swedish prosecutor in the case, Mats Ljungqvist, told Swedish news agency TT on Friday he was confident the Vezhen was involved. "I think I can say, on very solid grounds, that it is this ship that has damaged the cable," he said. "Our work is continuing. We're working hard. The ship is still seized and there are various investigative measures being taken, including technical examinations," he said. The incident is the latest in a series of cases of cables being damaged in the Baltic Sea, amid heightened tensions between Russia and the West since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since the invasion, Finland and Sweden, which both border the Baltic Sea, have dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO as concern about the region's security mounts. In September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe, the cause of which has yet to be determined. In October 2023, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship. In November 2024, two telecom cables in Swedish waters were severed, and on December 25, the Estlink 2 electricity cable and four telecom cables linking Finland and Estonia were damaged. In mid-January, NATO launched a Baltic Sea patrol mission to secure critical underwater infrastructure. Frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, submarines and drones are involved in the Baltic Sentry patrols. phy/po/gil
New York Times
31-01-2025
- New York Times
Norway Seizes Russian-Crewed Ship Suspected of Cutting an Undersea Cable
The authorities in Norway have seized a Russian-crewed ship that is suspected of damaging an undersea cable in an act of sabotage in the Baltic Sea, the Norwegian police said on Friday. They were acting on a request from the Latvian authorities and on an order issued in Norwegian courts, the police said in a statement, after an undersea cable that runs between Sweden and Latvia was damaged this week. It is the latest in a growing number of acts of damage or sabotage to undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, including to cables used for communication and for the distribution of electricity. In response to one such instance in December, NATO has stepped up its patrol and surveillance operation in the Baltic Sea. Concern about such damage has been rising since a series of undersea explosions blew apart the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines linking Russia to Western Europe in 2022. On Thursday evening, Norway's coast guard and police surrounded the Russian-crewed ship — the Silver Dania, a vessel owned and registered in Norway — and towed it into the Port of Tromso on Friday morning, the police said. The ship, a 36-year-old cargo vessel, according to shipping data, was sailing between the Russian ports of St. Petersburg and Murmansk. The police said that officers had boarded the ship to search for evidence and to question the crew in relation to the damaged cable. The vessel's owners, a shipping company called Silver Sea, denied any wrongdoing. 'We agreed to go to a Norwegian port to be checked out,' Tormod Fossmark, the company's chief executive officer, told the Norwegian news media. He said that the company was complying with a request from the authorities. On Monday, the authorities in Sweden boarded a different ship in connection with what they described as an act of 'gross sabotage' of the Sweden-to-Latvia undersea cable a day earlier. They detained the bulk carrier, which is owned by a Bulgarian shipping company and was flying a Maltese flag. Russian involvement was suspected in the December cutting of an undersea cable that carries electricity between Finland and Estonia. In that instance, the Finnish authorities seized an oil tanker as they looked into whether the ship's anchor had cut the cable. Leaders in Finland and Estonia said they believed that the tanker might be part of Russia's 'shadow fleet' of ships aimed at circumventing Western-imposed price caps on Russian sea-transported oil because of Moscow's war in Ukraine. Such ships have increasingly come under suspicion for their role in acts of sabotage as a tactic of hybrid warfare between Russia and NATO.
