Finland, Sweden complete repairs on Baltic Sea cables | Yle News

The telecom link between Finland and Germany was fixed more quickly than anticipated.

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Repair work on a broken telecommunications cable linking Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea is complete and is functioning again, according to Cinia, a Finnish state majority-owned company.

The firm noticed a problem with the C-Lion1 cable early on the morning of 18 November. Seconds later, the link stopped working entirely.

The repair ship Cable Vigilance began fixing the telecom line on Monday of this week.

“Repairs were started quickly and the fault was fixed a bit faster than anticipated, Ari-Jussi Knaapila, Cinia’s CEO, said in a press release on Friday.

Another cable at the bottom of the Baltic, between Sweden and Lithuania, was broken a day before Cinia’s cable was damaged. It was repaired on Thursday evening, according to Arelion, the Swedish firm that manages the cable.

That cable is now operating at full capacity, Arelion told news service STT.

Joint investigations amid suspicions

There are suspicions that Russia played a role in damaging both cables, but the Kremlin has firmly denied involvement.

Shortly after reports about the damage emerged, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius suggested the incidents were sabotage.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a Chinese-flagged freighter, the Yi Peng 3, intentionally dragged its anchor along the seabed for a distance of more than 160km, damaging the cables.

Law enforcement authorities in Finland, Sweden and Lithuania have set up a joint investigation team to look into the incidents, according to Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation.

China’s foreign ministry said on Friday that Chinese authorities are prepared to cooperate with the various countries investigating the incidents.

The announcement came after Sweden made an official request for cooperation, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday, according to the Scandinavian country’s news agency TT.

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