A gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland was damaged by “outside influences”. At the center of the investigation are Russia and a Chinese cargo ship. The Kremlin reacts indignantly.
Moscow rejects suspicions of involvement in the damage to the Baltic Connector gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea between Finland and Estonia. “Russia has nothing to do with this incident,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, according to the Interfax agency.
At the same time, he spoke out against statements by Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics. He had called for the Baltic Sea to be closed to Russian ships if it turned out that Moscow had damaged the gas pipeline. Such threats, regardless of who they come from, are unacceptable for Russia, Peskov said in Moscow.
Chinese ship is suspected
The Finnish government announced on October 10 that the gas pipeline had been damaged two days earlier, probably due to external influences. It runs between Inkoo in Finland and Paldiski in Estonia. An undersea data cable between Sweden and Estonia was also damaged locally in the sea.
Finland and Estonia are investigating together, but are not speculating about what happened. However, the incident and suspicions of possible Moscow involvement raised concerns within NATO. Finnish investigators then announced last Friday that the Chinese container ship ‘Newnew Polar Bear’, flying the flag of Hong Kong, was in the region at the time of the damage.
About a year earlier – in September 2022 – three of the four parts of the Baltic Sea pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 were damaged by explosions. Here too, the authorship is still unclear.
Source: Krone
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