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A Chinese cargo vessel’s crew has been accused of intentionally cutting two major undersea internet links, possibly at the request of Russia.
A multinational investigation indicates that the ship, the Yi Peng 3, dragged its anchor for over 100 miles (about 160 kilometers) along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, the Wall Street Journal reports. That damaged two different sets of internet backbone cables, one of them connecting Finland and Germany while the other ran between Sweden and Lithuania. The investigation began when the cables suddenly stopped working earlier in November.
Investigators have so far had the cooperation of the ship’s operating company, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, which was ferrying Russian fertilizer when the incident occurred. Western law enforcement and intelligence sources cited by the Journal say they don’t think the Chinese government was involved in any plot.
The case runners are still exploring the possibility of Russian involvement. That country has denied any wrongdoing, but it remains at war with Ukraine, which has the support of many European nations that include the four affected by the cable cuts. European officials also suspect Russia of being behind some earlier undersea incidents, and engaging in cyberwarfare against Europe.
The US government recently authorized Ukrainian use of US-made ATACMS missiles against targets inside Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has since retaliated in several ways, such as by testing hypersonic missile technology and suggesting that the US and Britain are now in “direct” conflict with Russia, as Reuters notes. Putin also lowered a threshold for using nuclear weapons, saying his country is now prepared to launch them in response to conventional attacks that pose a threat to sovereignty.
