AP ran a story on Jan. 28 on Russia’s alleged sabotage campaign in the Baltic Sea. The upshot is that the NATO accusers really don’t have any evidence that Russia is behind the cable breaks—11 of them in the last 15 months—but to say Russia did it fits NATO’s anti-Russia narrative. “Although cable operators note that subsea cable damage is commonplace, the frequency and concentration of incidents in the Baltic heightened suspicions that damage might have been deliberate,” AP says.
“Several Western intelligence officials ... told The Associated Press that recent damage was most likely accidental, seemingly caused by anchors being dragged by ships that were poorly maintained and poorly crewed,” AP says a few paragraphs later. “One senior intelligence official told AP that ships’ logs and mechanical failures with ships’ anchors were among ‘multiple indications’ pointing away from Russian sabotage. The official said Russian cables were also severed. Another Western official, also speaking anonymously to discuss intelligence matters, said Russia sent an intelligence-gathering vessel to the site of one cable rupture to investigate the damage.”