YLE: Finnish police identified the item found at Balticconnector as an anchor
Finnish police discovered an object near the damaged Balticconnector gas pipeline, which was later identified as a ship’s anchor. The Finnish Navy has already brought it to the surface for further study. This was reported by the Finnish broadcasting company YLE.
“The Central Criminal Police reported that a foreign object found near the site of damage to the gas pipeline was an anchor. The anchor is missing one of the teeth,” the material notes. The weight of the find is more than 2700 kilograms.
Now the main task of the investigation will be to determine whether the accident was intentional or accidental.
Finnish investigators suggest that the same anchor could have damaged a telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia, which became known on October 17.
Finnish police have identified suspects
The Chinese ship flying the Hong Kong flag Newnew Polar Bear is the main suspect in this case – the ship’s course passed just near the places where the Balticconnector and telecommunications cable were laid.
“[Имеющий отношение к аварии] the ship did not stop or slow down,” Finnish Navy Commander Tony Jutsia commented on the nature of the damage to the gas pipeline at a Finnish police press conference.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning previously said that China and Finland are cooperating in the investigation of the emergency.
China has always advocated strengthening international cooperation to jointly protect the security of cross-border infrastructure. According to available data, at the time of the incident the Chinese vessel was carrying out normal navigation in the relevant water area
The investigation excluded Russia from the main suspects
During a press conference, Finnish Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesman Risto Lohi said that the Russian ship Sevmorput, which was previously included in the list of possible participants in the accident, is no longer the main suspect. “The Russian ship is not considered as the main focus of the investigation,” he concluded.
At the same time, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics previously proposed closing the Baltic Sea to Russia if evidence of Moscow’s involvement in the Balticconnector gas pipeline incident is discovered, hinting that the Latvian authorities consider Russia to be the main culprit in the attack on underwater infrastructure even before the end of the official investigation in Finland.
Kremlin official Dmitry Peskov, in turn, said that Russia has nothing to do with the incident on the Balticconnector gas pipeline.
[Ринкевичс] I just meant that if it turns out that Russia has anything to do with this, and I immediately say that Russia has nothing to do with it, then we need to “think about closing the Baltic Sea to Russia.” I repeat once again, Russia has nothing to do with this
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