JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
NATO chief Mark Rutte has assured Finland and Estonia of added military support after a ship linked to Russia is suspected of severing major cables between the two countries. From Brussels, Teri Schultz reports that this is the third time in just over a year that critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea is believed to have been damaged by such vessels.
TERI SCHULTZ: When undersea electricity and telecommunications cables between Finland and Estonia went down just after noon Helsinki time on Christmas Day, it wasn't immediately clear what had happened. But Finnish authorities soon noticed that the Eagle S, a cargo vessel registered in the Cook Islands, which left Russia a day earlier, had slowed down as it passed over the cables - the same time frame as the outage occurred. Finnish law enforcement worked quickly to seize the Eagle S and noticed it was missing an anchor, reminiscent of an incident a year earlier, where a Chinese ship dragged its anchor over a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, causing severe damage. That vessel sailed free. Not this time, said Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who noted the Eagle S crew is being interviewed, and a criminal investigation into suspected aggravated sabotage is underway.
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PRESIDENT ALEXANDER STUBB: Our message is quite clear. We've got the situation under control, and we have to continue work together vigilantly to make sure that our critical infrastructure is not damaged by outsiders. It's too soon to draw conclusions yet why this happened. We know who did it.
SCHULTZ: Stubb and Estonian leaders asked NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte for military reinforcement in the Baltic Sea. Without giving details, Stubb says NATO has already responded to the call. But the chair of the Estonian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Marko Mihkelson, says any boost now is belated - that, already, after the first incident of infrastructure damage in October 2023, NATO should have launched naval patrols to give a visible warning to the Kremlin not to do it again.
MARKO MIHKELSON: We have been too slow in our action.
SCHULTZ: Now, there are three suspected sabotage cases, Mihkelson notes, all of them blamed on shadow-fleet vessels, which Moscow uses to transport oil in contravention of international sanctions imposed for its war on Ukraine.
MIHKELSON: We said, after the NATO membership of Sweden and Finland, that the Baltic Sea is like NATO lake. Is it? What can we do to secure the critical infrastructure? So I would like to see more robust action from the side of NATO.
SCHULTZ: But Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council specialized in hybrid warfare, says NATO has limited options. She suggests national authorities investigate and possibly prosecute the crews and suspected owners of these ships to make them think twice about conducting malign activities on behalf of the Kremlin. But, Braw notes, that's not a job for NATO.
ELISABETH BRAW: NATO's a military alliance. It's not an alliance that responds with military force against what we would ordinarily consider criminal activities, and Russia will be able to continue to engage in these activities. It is a massive dilemma and headache for NATO.
SCHULTZ: Marko Mihkelson agrees that deterring Russia from using such an easy way to disrupt life in NATO countries will be difficult. But he says that's not a reason not to try every means, starting with joint naval patrols hovering over critical undersea connections.
MIHKELSON: Russia is testing us. If we are hesitating to do something, they do more, and that is as simple as that.
SCHULTZ: Asked Friday for a reaction to Finland's detention of the Eagle S, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment.
For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.
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