from Hacker News

Sweden Seizes Ship Suspected of Baltic Sea 'Sabotage'

by Sontho on 1/27/25, 10:05 AM with 212 comments

• by willvarfar on 1/27/25, 11:07 AM

  Last week The Washington Post cited anonymous US intelligence officials as saying these anchor drags are probably accidents. Its byline paints it as a growing opinion in European intelligence circles too: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/19/russia-balti...

  This is very much at odds with the government stances in the Baltic.

  So what is the political messaging happening in the US and why?

• by biofox on 1/27/25, 10:25 AM

  There have been several incidents of underwater sabotage in recent years, and I can't recall any previous action being taken, so this is a welcome change.

• by d0nt_like_putin on 1/27/25, 6:16 PM

  All this is Russian hybrid-warfare.[1] The previous cable-cutting ship that was seized by Finland had so much radio equipment that it generators couldn't keep up. "RUSSIA-LINKED dark fleet tanker Eagle S (IMO: 9329760), seized by Finland on December 25 for damaging an undersea cable, had transmitting and receiving devices installed that effectively allowed it to become a “spy ship” for Russia, Lloyd’s List has learnt.

  The hi-tech equipment on board was abnormal for a merchant ship and consumed more power from the ship’s generator, leading to repeated blackouts, a source familiar with the vessel who provided commercial maritime services to it as recently as seven months ago."[2]

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_warfare [2] https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1151955/Russia-linked-cable-cut...

• by cm2187 on 1/27/25, 11:21 AM

  I think people will need to rethinking having their electricity grid relying on undersea cables. Like there are projects to make the UK dependent on solar energy from Morocco, and northern europe on Scandinavian dams.

• by hsuduebc2 on 1/27/25, 3:32 PM

  I don't understand the point of doing this. The cable just gets fixed and before thet the internet goes the other way for a while. They're just gonna piss everybody off. Can you think of any logical reason, or is it just Russia's indomitable desire to do harm?

• by rags2riches on 1/27/25, 2:45 PM

  Prompted by this incident, here's a description of how to drop an anchor on a ship like this:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrT1Pl3pR6Y&t=268s

  Earlier in the video is a quote from Finnish authorities calling the reports of these incidents being accidental BS. Later is a walkthrough of the telling variations in speed of the ship after leaving port in Russia.

• by ChrisArchitect on 1/27/25, 3:33 PM

  Earlier:

  Another undersea cable damaged in Baltic Sea

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42833491

• by matthewfelgate on 1/27/25, 10:23 AM

  When is the West going to start standing up to Russia on these cable sabotages?

• by pineaux on 1/27/25, 11:50 AM

  So much S's a nice tongue twister

  Seeing Sweden seize suspected sea sabotage ships.

• by CrzyLngPwd on 1/27/25, 11:44 AM

  Over the last 20 years, 100-200 such cables globally have been damaged annually.

  This is only news now because Russia is the current bogeyman, and the claims of Russia doing it fit the propaganda.

  If I were Ukraine, I'd cut such cables to encourage my Western sponsors into more action, but that narrative is a bitter pill to swallow for the Western taxpayer's funding conflict.

  Still, in 50 years, we may well be reading about exactly that.