Balticconnector offshore gas pipeline compressor station in Inkoo, Finland Photo: LEHTIKUVA/REUTERS
NATO will give a “strong response” if it finds evidence that the damage to the Baltic Sea gas pipeline was the result of deliberate sabotage by a hostile power, the head of the alliance said on Wednesday.
The Balticconnector pipeline runs through the Baltic Sea. The seabed of the Baltic Sea connecting Finland with Estonia was seriously damaged along with a telecommunications cable early on Sunday morning.
On Tuesday, the Finnish government blamed “external activity” for the damage, and the Norwegian Seismological Institute said it had detected a “possible explosion” in the area.
Finland's National Bureau of Investigation said it was too early to rule out sabotage or accident.
“If this is proven to be a deliberate attack on NATO's critical infrastructure, it will of course be serious, but it will also meet with a united and decisive response from NATO,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. Wednesday.
“The important thing now is to find out what happened and how it could have happened,” he said before the NATO meeting in Brussels.
Estonia and Finland are NATO members. military alliance which the latter joined earlier this year in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Russian cargo ship in the area
Amid speculation that Moscow may have carried out the sabotage, it was reported that a Russian cargo ship was in the area when the pipeline and communications cable were damaged.
The shipping website Marine Traffic showed that the SVG The fleet was traveling from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad, Finnish and Estonian media reported. Maritime mapping showed on Wednesday that it had arrived in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave located between Poland and Lithuania.
With some suspecting Moscow of involvement in the attack on infrastructure, the question now is what constitutes “maritime shipping.” decisive response” from NATO.
“In fact, we have no precedent for the critical infrastructure of a NATO member to be sabotaged by a foreign player,” – Henri Vanhanen, a security policy expert from Finland. This was reported by the Institute of International relationships. “It is unclear what measures would be taken against such a hostile action.”
A military response is unlikely because NATO does not want direct military confrontation with Russia.
This leaves options such as expelling Russian diplomats, imposing new economic sanctions or increasing the alliance's military presence in the region.
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“NATO must find a means of deterrence. If they don't take strong enough countermeasures, a foreign player may be tempted to go even further,” Mr. Vanhanen said.
“NATO must find a balance that imposes costs on Russia but does not lead to to military confrontation.”
The Kremlin called the incident “worrying news” but said it would wait for more information.
Finland and Estonia are still trying to figure out what caused the pipeline damage. According to one version, a heavy anchor was accidentally or intentionally dragged along it.
“Obviously, this may be so. It can be seen that these damages were caused by a fairly heavy force,” Hanno Pevkur, Estonian Defense Minister, told Reuters.
Investigators are not ruling anything out, he said, but possibilities include “mechanical impact or mechanical failure” of the pipeline, which runs between Inkoo in Finland and Paldiski in Estonia.
The pipeline, which was filled with concrete during protection, appears to be as if “someone tore it off from the side,” according to the commander of the Estonian Navy, Yuri Sask.
“The concrete cracked or peeled off exactly at the point of damage,” he said.
For repairs The damaged pipeline will take at least five months to complete, its Finnish and Estonian operators said on Wednesday.
The incident occurred about a year after the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which crosses the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany. , were damaged by explosions in what remains a mysterious act of sabotage, with no country claiming or claiming responsibility.
Increased security
In response to pipeline damage in the Baltic Sea, Norway and Lithuania have tightened measures safety on land. power plants.
“We have increased our focus on preventive patrols of oil and gas installations in our area,” said Helge Blindheim, a police officer in western Norway, where an oil terminal and two gas processing plants are located.
In Norway, police are responsible for onshore security facilities, and the military is responsible for offshore platforms and pipelines.
Finland has instructed energy operators to be more attentive to security issues as a result of the incident in the Baltic Sea.
“Yesterday (Tuesday) we called on companies critical to the security of energy supply to increase their own preparedness levels, especially in relation to critical infrastructure,” said Janne Kankanen, director of the Finnish National Emergency Management Agency. .
“Special attention is now required from all operators to protect this critical infrastructure.”
Lithuania, which borders Estonia, has increased security at its liquefied natural gas import terminal. gas pipelines and other strategic energy assets.
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