Undersea Power Cable Linking Finland and Estonia Hit by Outage, Finnish PM Says

Facts

• An undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia has been hit by an outage, prompting an investigation, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Wednesday.^[1]
• Writing on the X (formerly Twitter) platform in his native language, Orpo said that power transmission through the Estlink-2 cable was interrupted on Wednesday afternoon, but added it did not affect his country's access to electricity.^[2][3]
• As part of the investigation, Finland seized a Cook Islands-registered oil tanker on Thursday on suspicion that the vessel's anchor may have caused the damage. According to Finnish customs service, the ship is suspected of smuggling embargoed Russian crude and oil products.^[4][5]
• A statement from operator Fingrid said the unplanned break in service occurred at 1026 GMT and that it reduced the capacity from 1,016 to 358 megawatts, adding that electricity had been flowing from Finland to Estonia at a rate of 658 megawatts at the time of the interruption.^[1]
• Meanwhile, the Estonian provider Elering said there was enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, according to a statement to local media.^[6]
• This follows similar instances last month when two communications cables were severed in the Baltic Sea — one connecting Lithuania and Sweden and the other between Germany and Finland. Initially, Russia was suspected of waging a deliberate attack, but investigations later narrowed on a Chinese vessel suspected to have dragged its anchor.^[7][8]

Sources: ^[1]CNN (a), ^[2]Associated Press, ^[3]X, ^[4]The Moscow Times, ^[5]CNN (b), ^[6]ABC News, ^[7]CNN (b) and ^[8]The Guardian.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by TASS and Sky News. After falling out of operation for the majority of 2024, there are many possible explanations for this cable's shutdown. Although the possibility of sabotage has been floated, the world must wait for a thorough analysis and investigation before jumping to any conclusions. Whatever the case, the Finnish prime minister has been clear that his country remains unaffected.
• Narrative B, as provided by The Spectator (UK). While it's not yet clear whether this damage was even the result of sabotage, Russia (along with other nations) has undoubtedly adopted a 'gig economy' approach to the recruitment of saboteurs in recent months, all with the aim of disrupting, delaying, and degrading its enemies. Sabotage has historically never dealt a decisive blow, but hastened the weakening and decay of key infrastructure, as is the case here.