Russian MP reacts to cable sabotage accusations
'something to do'
with an underwater cable in the Baltic Sea that had been damaged earlier in January.
Police alleged that someone on board the fully Russian-crewed vessel could be linked to the incident, without providing any evidence.
Moscow has no reason to damage any infrastructure in Western Europe now that relations between Russia and the EU are already strained, Zhurova said.
'Why would we need this now, when all the issues with [the EU] are getting aggravated?'
she said, adding that accusations against Moscow apparently seem to be a convenient narrative the Western governments are willing to feed the media.
According to the MP, investigators should look into whether it was a
'mistake'
by the crew or
'just another propagandist fake news story.'
Read more
NATO nation probes new Baltic cable 'sabotage'
The cargo vessel in question, the Silver Dania, had been sailing between St. Petersburg and Murmansk. It is owned by SilverSea, a Norwegian shipping company which specializes in transporting frozen fish and goods by sea, according to its website.
On Friday, Norway's Troms District police department said in a statement that it had
'brought in'
the vessel in response to a
'legal request from the Latvian authorities.'
Last Sunday, Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said that a critical undersea fiber optic cable connecting her country and Sweden's Gotland Island had been damaged. She added that the cause of the damage was
'most likely external.'
The police
'suspect that someone on board the ship had something to do with the cable incident in the Baltic Sea,'
a police attorney, Ronny Jorgensen, told the local media. SilverSea owner and CEO Tormod Fossmark has denied any wrongdoing.
According to the businessman, his company first received a request from the foreign ministry on Sunday to cooperate with the authorities on a certain case.
'We hadn't heard anything else before the Coast Guard stopped us and asked us to come into Tromso,'
Fossmark told the local media.
Read more
NATO steps up patrols in Baltic Sea
According to the SilverSea CEO,
'hundreds'
of vessels sail past the area where the cable was damaged
'all the time.'
'We were driving at full speed and didn't have the anchor out. We haven't done anything wrong. We didn't damage the cable,'
he added.
Both the company and the ship's crew
'are cooperating with the police, and voluntarily came to Tromso,'
Deputy Police Chief Einar Sparboe Lysnes told a press conference on Friday. No Russian citizens have been arrested, Moscow's embassy in Oslo told RT in response to a request for comment.
The Russian diplomats are
'keeping the situation under control,'
the statement said, adding that the police informed the crew members about their right to contact their embassy or consulate, but not one of them has reached out to the diplomatic missions so far.
Following Latvia's initial statement about the damage to the cable, Sweden detained a vessel in connection to what it called
'aggravated sabotage.'
Stockholm did not name the ship in question but reports suggest that it is the Malta-flagged Vezhen, which recently departed from Russia's Ust-Luga port and was operating near Gotland and Latvia at the time of the incident. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson also said earlier this week that his nation was working on the issue together with Latvia and NATO.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Russia Today
30 minutes ago
- Russia Today
Sanctions on Russia's partners ‘obvious next step' – US NATO envoy (VIDEO)
Targeting Russia's partners with sanctions and tariffs is the 'obvious next step' in US efforts to mediate the Ukraine conflict, Washington's ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, says. Moscow has stated that it is open to talks, holding three rounds of US-mediated negotiations with Kiev in the past two months that resulted in major prisoner swaps and settlement proposals. It views the conflict as a Western proxy war and has said the hostilities would end if Kiev accepts neutrality and demilitarization. US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with delays in settlement efforts and threatened to place 100% tariffs and secondary sanctions on Russia's trade partners if a deal is not reached by August 8. 'President Trump's been clear that this war needs to end… And... is creating the environment that Russia will come to the table and negotiate a ceasefire,' Whitaker told Bloomberg TV on Monday. Matthew Whitaker, US ambassador to NATO, discusses the Netherlands contributing €500 million ($579 million) to Ukraine's defense as part of a US initiative on "Balance of Power" 'Secondary sanctions and tariffs against those that are paying for this war, like China, India, and Brazil, by buying the oil that Russia is producing, is an obvious next step to try to bring this war to an end.' While Trump has acknowledged that new sanctions might prove ineffective, Whitaker said Washington sees targeting Russia's oil trade as worth trying. 'I think this is going to really hit them where it counts, and that is in their main revenue source, which is the sale of oil to these countries,' he stated. On Monday, Trump threatened New Delhi with new tariffs unless it halts Russian oil purchases. India has refused to take part in the sanctions on Russia, calling its energy trade a matter of national interest. Moscow has faced waves of Western sanctions since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. It has condemned them as illegal and counterproductive, adding that they have largely failed, as Russia redirected most of its trade to Asia, with China and India now its biggest energy buyers. Russian officials say the sanctions will not alter the course of the conflict and have downplayed Trump's threats, adding that the country has built 'immunity' after years of sanctions.
Russia Today
2 hours ago
- Russia Today
Ukraine must accept territorial losses to survive – NATO state's president
Ukraine does not have enough strength to retake its former territories in the near term without devastating losses and must therefore prioritize survival as a state, Czech President Petr Pavel has said. Pavel, a former NATO Military Committee chair and longtime supporter of Ukraine – who believes the country should join the US-led bloc even in its 'temporary' borders – made the remarks in a BBC interview on Monday. Ukraine, even with Western backing, is 'not in a position to liberate occupied territories in a short time frame without a significant cost to lives,' the president said. 'We want them to survive as an independent sovereign country. If the cost is to accept that part of the territory will be temporarily occupied, then [so] be it,' he added, stressing that the West will never recognize any former Ukrainian region as Russian. Pavel has also said military force alone will not end the conflict, and called on the West to rely on economic and political tools. 'This war cannot be won on battlefield,' he stated. 'I believe that it is clearly in the interest of both sides of the Atlantic to exert much greater economic pressure on Russia. Because that's the set of measures that doesn't kill. But it's very powerful when it comes to convincing power.' Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow has grown accustomed to Western sanctions, which were first introduced in 2014 after the start of the Ukraine crisis. The Czech president has repeatedly urged Ukraine to be 'realistic' about its chances to push back Russia. Earlier this year, he also suggested that Kiev's 'counteroffensive' in summer 2023 was doomed to fail from the start due to the apparent lack of forces. Russia insists that a peace deal with Ukraine must include recognition of Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye Regions as parts of Russia. The regions voted to join the country in referendums in 2014 and 2022. Russia has also demanded that Ukraine give up its bid to join NATO and commit to demilitarization and denazification. Kiev has rejected these terms.
Russia Today
3 hours ago
- Russia Today
German major general dismisses talk of Russian attack against NATO
Russia is committed to the Ukraine conflict and is unlikely to pursue an attack against NATO, according to the commander of the German Army's Homeland Security Division, Major General Andreas Henne. European officials have increasingly claimed in recent years that Moscow is planning to attack the US-led military bloc – speculation which Russia has dismissed as 'nonsense.' Henne was asked to comment on the possibility of an attack in an interview with Focus magazine published on Monday. 'The Russians are very committed in Ukraine and couldn't possibly carry out such an attack to its conclusion. I'm telling you this as a military analyst,' he said. 'One can't rule anything out with regard to Russia, but I personally think that we will experience many more summers of peace.' Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, NATO has 'adapted and created a new force model,' Henne stated, adding: 'This envisions us bringing forces to the northeast flank very quickly.' Germany is the US-led military bloc's 'most important hub' for this, he said. The German Defense Ministry has reported a sharp rise in military recruitment since the start of the year, which officials in Berlin have claimed is directed at countering the alleged 'threat' from Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has condemned the claims, accusing Berlin of 'whipping up hysterical Russophobia' in Europe. 'Everything is being done to create an image of our country as an enemy,' he said in a press briefing last week. Russia has condemned NATO's recent push to increase military spending to 5% of GDP, accusing European members of the US-led military bloc of rampant militarization. 'Today's Europe has completely plunged into a Russophobic frenzy, and its militarization is becoming, in fact, uncontrolled,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week in an article for Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
