Sweden looks into broken communication cables in Baltic

A cable that connects Estonia and Sweden underwater for telecoms has been broken, according to the Swedish government.

The civil defence minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said that the cable was broken but not totally ruined.

He said that the cable might have been broken at the same time as a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia earlier this month.

Last week, Finland stated that the pipeline was probably intentionally damaged.

During a meeting with the media on Tuesday, Mr. Bohlin stated that the reason for the harm is still not known. Swedish investigators will work together with investigators from Finland and Estonia, he said.

On 8 October, it was found that there was damage to the pipeline that carries natural gas between Estonia and Finland. The Finnish authorities said that both the pipeline and the telecoms cable were broken in two spots.

Finnish sources recently told the BBC that they believe Russia may have caused deliberate damage as a response to Finland’s decision to join NATO in April.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said that the accusation is not true and called it “rubbish”.

Countries near the Baltic Sea have been very watchful for possible damage to undersea infrastructure since September. This concern started when the Nord Stream 2 undersea pipeline was made unusable due to several explosions.

It is not clear who was responsible for the attack on Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that was supposed to carry gas from Russia to Germany but was never used.

Ukraine said it did not do the explosions. Russia has said they did not do it.

At a recent meeting, the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson cautioned that undersea data cables could be sabotaged.

“There are many cables lying on the ocean floor,” said Mr Kristersson on Friday. He said that these cables are important for our modern economy but they can also be easily attacked.

Sweden and Finland both wanted to join Nato in 2022. However, even though Finland was accepted in April, Sweden has been facing opposition from Hungary and Turkey, causing their bid to be delayed and they are still not part of the alliance.