"Had it continued for another 12 minutes, the carnage would have been much worse than the four basic cables that were there," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

Old tankers are damaging crucial subsea cables using their anchors. Analysts say it's likely deliberate.

On Christmas Day, authorities in Estonia and Finland noted the sudden interruption of the Estlink 2 undersea electricity cable linking their two nations - just as ship tracking data showed the Cook Islands-registered "Eagle S" passing outbound from Russia’s Baltic coast en route to Egypt.

and flagged in places like Gabon or the Cook Islands. Some of the vessels are owned by the Russian state Sovcomflot shipping company. Their role is to help Russia’s oil exporters elude the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.

A spate of alleged sabotage operations against undersea cables in the Baltic Sea has raised the prospect of a dangerous 2025 in NATO's northern theater.

In total, the United States is sanctioning 183 oil-carrying vessels, Russian oil traders and oilfield providers, the two Russian oil majors and more than two dozen of their subsidiaries, according to the Treasury Department.

Russia is believed to be behind dozens of hybrid attacks, like arson or sabotage, on NATO soil since the Ukraine war started.

General Martin Herem, former head of Estonia’s defence forces, has speculated that NATO could blockade the Baltic. However, given that this would amount to a declaration of war, NATO has opted for a less confrontational approach: surveillance.

Members of parliament have written a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, warning of the potentially catastrophic dangers from the 'ticking time-bomb' vessels.

NATO launched 'Baltic Sentry', a new naval mission to prevent attacks on cable infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. The alliance says Russia is to blame for recent incidents, but can increased NATO patrols make a difference?

The “vintage tonnage” is the “shadow fleet” of second-hand oil tankers that were spared from the ship-breaking yards in 2022 because Russia lost its export market in Europe when it invaded Ukraine. There were plenty of potential customers for cut-price Russian oil in India and China, but no pipelines to get it there. It had to go by sea.

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