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Undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia suffers damage
- kaliqt 2y agoLikely CIA, as it always has been.
- beretguy 2y agoI wonder who would do something like that.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kyriakos 2y agoToo many "accidents" lately. Trying hard not to be a conspiracy theorist since cables were being cut prior Ukrainian war but we've been seeing cables being cut off and ships being sunk more frequently than usual (or maybe now they are just being reported more). Will we ever know?
- surfsvammel 2y agoAccording to an interview with people from the company that owned this particular cable (from Swedish media SVT) these things happen by accident sometimes, they said a couple of times per decade. They themselves did not think this was an accident.
- stavros 2y agoWho did they think did it?
- phplovesong 2y agoWell in this time its most likely russia.
- whatsupdog 2y ago[flagged]
- nashashmi 2y agoWasn't it proven that the US was behind the accident?
- Paradigma11 2y agoIf you are referring to NS2, no. It is pretty conclusive that it was Ukraine and the US had nothing to do with it. Germany identified the actors as Ukrainian citizen/military operating under an Ukrainian shell company. Also the US had made public half a year before that Ukraine had such plans and very strongly warned against it. Parts of the Ukrainian intelligence apparatus and money showed some initiative and went through with it anyway. The point of NS was always to circumvent Ukraine for Russian oil exports and not really for additional capacity. The remaining capacity was never remotely maxed out, I think less than 30% or so and it was the Russians who blocked exports for a long time (Think of the repaired turbine story).
- croes 2y agoSpeaking of karma, maybe not attacking another country would have prevented the $5 billion project being blast away. Not to mention all the unnecessary deaths on both sides.
- BoingBoomTschak 2y ago[flagged]
- 20after4 2y agoAt this point it seems pretty likely that several of these cable cuts are intentional. Sometimes it's ok to entertain conspiracy theories, a significant number of theorized incidents do turn out to be actual conspiracies.
- neonsunset 2y agoNot an accident. A Chinese vessel did this.
- lrasinen 2y agoThe current prime suspect is flagged in Cook Islands and registered owner is in UAE. Currently anchored off Finnish coast with a Coast Guard escort. True, there was a Chinese ship nearby but its path crossed the cable several minutes earlier.
- cenamus 2y agoWould be interesting to know how much the anchor hangs to the back when it cut the cable, and whether it was the chain or the anchor itself.
- jiggawatts 2y agoMy completely unfounded pet conspiracy theory is that China or Russia gained control of the company that owns the fibre repair ship. Cut fibres one at a time, and the victim will pay you to insert a listening device into their fibre. If you simply cut the fibre with a submarine, they might get suspicious. If you’re repairing an “accidental” cut everyone expects the outage. They’ll investigate the cut, not the repair.
- kyriakos 2y agoThis was a power cable...
- jiggawatts 2y agoSimilarly, you could insert a device that can instantly sever the cable on command, such as a specific acoustic pattern. In case of war, simply flood the area with an encoded sonar ping and a bunch of links all get cut at the same time.
- jmpman 2y agoCan’t you simply encrypt all traffic across the cable at each end point? I’d be surprised if that wasn’t common practice these days. And if wasn’t common practice when these cables were deployed, seems like it would be possible to retrofit.
- baybal2 2y ago[dead]
- nuccy 2y agoUnlike previously cut cables, which were mostly communication fiber cables, this particular one is a power cable and during the cut it was delivering 650MW at 450kV [1] so almost 1450A of current. If it was cut by accident by an anchor I could imagine achor being damaged due to underwater plasma in the arc. In general this cable should also be of quite some diameter. It should be made of thick copper wires (delivering 1450A over 145km) and plenty of dielectric isolation (to separate high voltage of 450kV), the ship would be slowed down or turned if it was accidentally draging this cable behind. Edit: P.S. Googling for some more details I found some pictures [2] from the installation of Estlink 2 and it doesn’t look that thick, but still it is solid metal with rigid plastic insulations. 1. https://www.4coffshore.com/news/vital-eastlink-2-energy-link-repair-expected-by-12-september-nid30168.html https://www.4coffshore.com/news/vital-eastlink-2-energy-link... 2. https://group.merko.ee/en/project/installation-of-estlink-2-underground-cable/ https://group.merko.ee/en/project/installation-of-estlink-2-...
- ajuc 2y agoIt's been confirmed for months already. We even know which ship damaged the previous ones (and how they lowered the anchor just before the cables and rised it after damaging the cables). It's not a conspiracy theory when you have evidence and mainstream consensus.
- roenxi 2y ago> (or maybe now they are just being reported more). Will we ever know? If you don't have statistics on this then there is no reason reason to assume that there is anything unusual going on (although, obviously, in wartime we probably should check vs. the base rate). Cables fail all the time and the reporting is fairly muted. It is quite hard to break into international news even with a major multi-faceted debacle like the Basslink cable failure back in '16 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Tasmanian_energy_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Tasmanian_energy_crisis.
- liotier 2y agoFollow @auonsson.bsky.social for cutting edge Russian Baltic cable vandalism. Their analysis of AIS trajectories and speeds correlated with cable positions offer great insight: https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3le754kjl6s2g https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3le754kjl...
- libertine 2y agoImpressive work! I also checked the work about the Russian GPS jamming coming out of Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg: https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3lalrqyytxk2z https://bsky.app/profile/auonsson.bsky.social/post/3lalrqyyt... This truly shows how much of a threat Russia became.
- tharmas 2y agoThe Russians could certainly say the same about the West.
- libertine 2y agoCould they? Do you have any evidence to share with us?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tharmas 2y agoIn reference to Russia having security concerns regarding the behavior of the West here are two books to read: https://www.amazon.com/Flight-MH17-Ukraine-new-Cold/dp/1526131099?s=books&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Flight-MH17-Ukraine-new-Cold/dp/15261... https://www.amazon.com/Provoked-Washington-Started-Catastrophe-Ukraine/dp/1733647376 https://www.amazon.com/Provoked-Washington-Started-Catastrop...
- libertine 2y ago
- phplovesong 2y agoRussia has become nothing more than an terrorist state. Amazing how putin reduced russia in just a few years to a cartoonish villian like state.
- peter-m80 2y ago[flagged]
- lazide 2y agoA few years? It has been escalating to this state for decades
- usrnm 2y agoI'm just curious, how is this different from sanctions? Cutting the cable hurts the economy, but nobody's killed or wounded, exactly the same way as sanctions are supposed to work. The EU is at an economic war with Russia, this is how it plays out
- benterix 2y agoThe difference is as subtle as between "I will not sell you my things because you bully my colleague" vs "I hate you so I will break your things".
- 2y ago
- jimnotgym 2y agoIf this is Russia, what are we going to do? It sounds like we (European governments, NATO etc). Need a much larger naval presence in the Baltic. But do we even posess the navy to do that between us? Edit: I'm afraid it is time for much greater military expansion in Europe
- the_mitsuhiko 2y ago> If this is Russia, what are we going to do? We have pretty much 10 years of experience to go by here: nothing. At least Europe won't. If anything the most likely outcome is for everybody to hope that Trump somehow ends this conflict and within 10 years everything goes back to where it was, and we're buddy-buddy with our dictatorship neighbors again.
- trhway 2y agoIt wouldn't go back to where it was. Russia is like a very large iceberg detaching itself from the civilization. The only issue is where the break-line is going to be. >At least Europe won't There are different parts of Europe. While for example Germany is relatively safe and relaxed, Poland is buying, on its own money, 1000 tanks form South Korea (among the best ones), jets, including F-35, etc. as it wants to stay on the civilization side of the break-line.
- the_mitsuhiko 2y agoDon't forget that plenty European countries made business with the USSR too. Also quite a number of EU members are quickly detaching themselves from democracy and a functional state. You don't have to look much farther than Hungary, Slovakia and even Austria to see that the trajectory this whole thing is on, is not a great one. Many European countries will be happy even with a much degraded Russia for as long as it supplies Gas and other natural resources for cheap.
- trhway 2y agoThe USSR had clear separation border between the West and the Eastern Block. >Many European countries will be happy even with a much degraded Russia They would be. Only it isn't just good old much degraded Russia like it was even in 2020 (as the Russian opposition calls it "vegetarian times"). It is now a fascist state with a nationalism as its political ideology. By its nature such regime is an aggressively expansive.
- perihelions 2y agoFrom the other thread [0], there's some additional context: that the Baltic statics are planning to decouple their power grid from Russia's six weeks from now (Feb. 7). [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42509212 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42509212
- c16 2y agoFor such a concentration of cables, you would think that governments would force a choke point for boats to pass through which they can monitor and oversee, then board anyone who ignores the requirement. Then again, if it’s in international waters, that might not be enforceable.
- exDM69 2y agoThe distance from Helsinki to Tallinn is just above 80 km and there is only a narrow sliver of international waters in between the territorial waters. It is quite well monitored by surface and underwater surveillance. In this particular case there is no need for a choke point, it already is one. The ship suspected for this sabotage was promptly escorted to Finnish territorial waters and is guarded by coast guard vessels and helicopters. This time the ship in question is under Cook Island / New Zealand flag, and they are more likely to cooperate than the previous instances where vessels under Hong Kong and Chinese flags. Apprehending a vessel on international waters requires the nation whose flag it's under to approve.
- lrasinen 2y agoFrom the press briefing: the ship Eagle S was stopped and found to be dragging its anchor. Or rather the chain; when the chain was raised there anchor was missing. Coast Guard and Police are on board.
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoRelated: NATO's Emergency Plan for an Orbital Backup Internet https://spectrum.ieee.org/undersea-internet-cables-nato https://spectrum.ieee.org/undersea-internet-cables-nato (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42510311 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42510311)
- tyronehed 2y ago[dead]