PDB Afternoon Bulletin | December 27th, 2024: Undersea Cable Sabotage & South Korea's Leadership Crisis Deepens
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What act of sabotage occurred involving undersea cables?
We'll begin today with a potential act of sabotage by Moscow as Finland seizes a Russian oil tanker suspected of severing undersea power and data cables on Christmas Day. Then South Korea's government descends further into chaos as their parliament impeaches the current acting president just two weeks after suspending President Yun Suk-yeol's powers over his controversial and bizarre martial law declaration. But first, our afternoon spotlight. We'll begin in the Baltic Sea, where it appears that the Kremlin may be intensifying their shadow war against Kyiv's NATO allies. Finland seized a tanker carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea on Thursday on suspicion that it had severed an undersea power cable and several internet cable lines on Christmas Day. Finnish authorities said the vessel may be part of Russia's infamous shadow fleet.
That's what they're calling it, the shadow fleet of aging tankers used to skirt Western sanctions on the sale of Russian oil. That's according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Three of the cables in question connected Finland and Estonia, while another connected Finland with Germany. Now, Finnish officials stressed that the country's energy and telecommunication services remained stable despite the damage as they were able to fall back on reserve cables to avoid data and power disruptions. Still, they warned that the damage could take months to repair and worsening weather conditions could potentially prolong their work and put the country's power supply in jeopardy.
How is Finland responding to the suspected sabotage?
Authorities said the Russian vessel slowed down as it passed over the cables on Wednesday with its anchor dragging on the seabed, roughly around the same time that the cables ceased functioning. Now, that could be what some would refer to as a clue. They added that the tanker briefly lingered over the site before continuing on its journey. Possibly another clue. Shortly after midnight on Thursday, Finnish special forces raided the vessel and have since been interrogating its crew on suspicion of, quote, aggravated criminal mischief. Is that what we call severing important undersea cables? Mischief. Finland's prime minister said it was too early to say whether the Russian government played a role in the incident, but Finland's NATO allies aren't taking any chances By Friday, NATO leadership announced the alliance would boost its military presence in the Baltic Sea, while Estonia launched their own naval operation to guard nearby electricity cables
Estonia's foreign minister warned, "...if there is a threat to the critical undersea infrastructure in our region, there will also be a response." He added that the alliance must do more to crack down on Russia's shadow fleet, saying, "...in addition to circumventing sanctions, the shadow fleet is a security threat in the Baltic Sea, and we cannot just sit and watch." Sweden and Lithuania also reacted swiftly, deploying aircraft and vessels from their respective navies to monitor ship traffic in the region. It's just the latest anchor-dragging incident involving damage to critical underwater communications infrastructure in the Baltic, which many in the alliance suspect is part of the Kremlin's hybrid war against NATO and the EU.
Officials with the Finnish Navy speculated that their adversaries are testing whether cheap civilian ships can be employed to successfully disrupt communication lines within the NATO alliance, and it would certainly appear that their testing is proving that it can. As a reminder, these marine fiber optic cables are a critical piece of global communications infrastructure that provide vital internet and telecoms connectivity. One of the cables damaged on Wednesday had just been repaired after being cut in an incident involving a Chinese cargo ship, everybody's getting involved in the action, last month that sailed from a Russian port.
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