When two fiber-optic cables were severed under the Baltic Sea last month, European officials acted fast, with some declaring sabotage. They sent coast guard vessels to halt a Chinese-flagged commercial ship that their governments suspected of involvement.
That was 23 days ago.
Today, the ship, the Yi Peng 3, remains anchored in the Baltic Sea, watched over by a rotating host of coast guard vessels while Sweden, Finland and Lithuania investigate. But if officials have gained any greater insight into what happened to the cables — or whether the ship was involved — they are not saying.
Asked for an update, Sweden’s foreign ministry referred to a statement from last month about the need to “await the findings of this investigation.” A spokesperson for Sweden’s Prosecution Authority reiterated that the matter was being jointly investigated, but said no further details were available. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The mystery surrounding the Yi Peng 3 comes at a time of heightened anxiety in Europe after a number of apparent acts of sabotage around the continent, including arson, vandalism and physical assaults.
European officials have attributed many of these, including a plot detailed last month to place incendiary devices on planes, to Russia. Last week, Estonian officials described a scheme by Russia’s military intelligence service to pay locals to commit acts of vandalism, including breaking the widows of cars belonging to the country’s interior minister and an editor of a local news outlet.
“Russia realizes that it cannot match the United States militarily after the setbacks it had in Ukraine and is looking for other ways to pressure and disrupt the Western countries,” Christopher P. Maier, a U.S. assistant secretary of defense, said in an interview published this week by a Swedish news outlet, Svenska Dagbladet. “We therefore expect to see more types of sabotage and other disruptive and subversive incidents.”
