Norway seizes Russian-crewed ship over suspected cable damage

OSLO: 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”.

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”