Almost a month has passed since the damage to the Estlink 2 power transmission cable. Suspicion quickly turned to the Cook Islands-flagged oil tanker Eagle S.
While the Easgle S is a Russian-linked tanker, recent weeks have seen international media reports, including the Washington Post, suggest a growing consensus among American and European intelligence agencies that the damage to underwater cables in the Baltic Sea over the past year is accidental.
Jukka Savolainen of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) told Hufvudstadsbladet that he was highly sceptical of this assessment, noting that any further cable ruptures would have risked Estonia's independence from Russian electricity.
"It's a fact that there is no evidence to suggest it [the cable damage] was intentional. But that does not prove it was an accident," he explained, noting that ship anchors don't typically fall off under normal circumstances and that the likelihood of this happening three times in the same area is improbable.
Finland's preliminary investigation into the case is still ongoing.
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Kauppalehti meanwhile explores a report by the US Helsinki Commission claiming that Russia has escalated its shadow war in Nato countries.
This report includes nearly 150 hybrid operations in Nato states all of which are suspected to involve Russia to some extent.
According to the US government agency rooted in the 1975 Helsinki Accords, these hybrid operations fall under four categories: attacks on critical infrastructure, violence, instrumentalised migration and election interference. Finland is mentioned in relation to GPS interference and instrumentalised migration at the eastern border, which has been closed for over a year.
Regarding the Eagle S incident, KL cites Helsinki Commission policy advisor Jordan Warlick saying Finland's seizure of the vessel was exemplary.
"This decisive response that sets an example for how Nato should treat these incursions: as acts of war demanding a resolute and coordinated response."
Finnish exports decline
China is increasingly using Russian timber in its construction projects, as Finnish timber exports to the country are declining, reports Maaseudun Tulevaisuus. Instead, China has upped timber imports from Belarus and the United States.
Finnish-sawn timber exports to China fell by almost a third last year, according to the agricultural paper.
China's customs statistics show Finland exporting 621,000 cubic meters of timber to China last year, a 29 percent drop compared to 2023. Russia is China's main source of foreign timber, accounting for two-thirds of the total.
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