Swedish authorities have said their initial investigation into the Baltic subsea cable cuts has shown there is no evidence of foul play.
The subsea cable cuts happened in November and were initially thought to be sabotage by Chinese ship, the Yi Peng 3.
“It cannot be determined with certainty whether a Chinese ship intentionally damaged data cables in the Baltic Sea,” said the government authority.
However, a separate probe into the cuts is still ongoing, with deliberate damage by bad actors not being ruled out.
Swedish authorities also noted that the investigation was seriously restricted by Chinese officials.
Chinese authorities had allowed investigators from neighboring countries, including Sweden, to board the ship, but obstructed normal investigative procedures.
“A lot of [the damage to the cables] is consistent with an accident,” said the head of the investigating authority, Jonas Bäckstrand. “But it is clear that if you want to do something deliberately, you also do it in a way that will avoid detection as much as possible.”
It was revealed in November that a Chinese-registered bulk carrier was being investigated for potentially damaging two subsea cables in the Baltic Sea.
The Yi Peng 3 sailed over both the C-Lion1 Helsinki-Rostock cable and the BCS East-West link cable between Lithuania and Sweden around the time they were cut.
There have been several notable subsea cable cuts in the Baltic Sea in recent months.
At the end of last year, the Estlink 2 subsea cable between Finland and Estonia was cut. Around the same time, three Internet cables connecting the two nations were cut, and a fourth fiber optic cable between Finland and Germany was also cut.
Russia was believed to be behind the cable cuts. Finnish Authorities even seized the Eagle S ship, carrying Russian oil, in late December under suspicion of being behind the cable cuts.
In January, a subsea cable connecting Latvia to Sweden’s Gotland island became the latest cable to be damaged in the Baltic Sea. The Latvian government has suggested in a statement that the cable was damaged due to ‘external factors.’ After Swedish authorities seized the cargo ship suspected of causing the cut, an investigation determined that weather conditions were to blame, and it was deemed not to be an act of sabotage.
