Finnish court jails Russian captain over Baltic Sea cable sabotage

Published on 5 November 2026 - 10:51 GMT+1•Updated 11:07 A Finnish court jailed the Russian captain and a senior crew member from a freighter on Thursday for sabotaging two undersea cables linking Finland and Estonia. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Helsinki District Court said it had convicted the captain and his deputy on the Fitburg for "aggravated criminal damage". The Russian captain was ordered jailed for three years and six months and the crew member, an Azerbaijan national, for two years and 10 months. The Fitburg, a 132-metre-long cargo ship that had left St Petersburg in Russia and was sailing to the Israeli port of Haifa was detained on New Year's Eve following suspicion that the ship's anchor had damaged a telecoms cable in the Gulf of Finland. The vessel, flagged from St Vincent and the Grenadines, is believed to have dragged its anchor along the seabed for several kilometres, Finnish authorities said. Finnish customs determined in January that the cargo of steel products was subject to sanctions against Russia but no criminal investigation was launched as the products were only brought into Finnish territorial waters when authorities ordered the ship to move. Meanwhile, an inspection by the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency found no severe deficiencies in the ship. Finnish telecoms group Elisa owns the cable, which is located in Estonia's exclusive economic zone. Similar incidents Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many experts and political leaders have viewed suspected sabotage of undersea cables as part of a hybrid war carried out by Russia against Western countries. In December 2024, Finnish authorities boarded the Russian-linked oil tanker Eagle S which investigators said had damaged power cables and telecommunications links in the Baltic Sea by dragging its anchor along the seabed. That case was dismissed by a Finnish court in October after prosecutors failed to prove intent. Eight NATO countries bordering the Baltic Sea, which also borders Russia, have been on high alert following a series of incidents that damaged undersea power cables, telecoms links and gas pipelines. Those incidents have generally been regarded as deliberate acts of sabotage suspected of being linked to Russia and have prompted NATO to boost its presence in the region with patrol frigates, aircraft and naval drones. Both NATO and the EU have also been on high alert following a string of airspace violations, thought to be from Russia.