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fliptop [soylentnews.org] writes:

An undersea fiber optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, likely as a result of external influence, Latvia said, triggering an investigation by local and NATO maritime forces in the Baltic Sea [cnn.com]:

“We have determined that there is most likely external damage and that it is significant,” Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina told reporters following an extraordinary government meeting.

Latvia is coordinating with NATO and the countries of the Baltic Sea region to clarify the circumstances, she said separately in a post on X.

Latvia’s navy earlier on Sunday said it had dispatched a patrol boat to inspect a ship and that two other vessels were also subject to investigation.

From Zerohedge's coverage [zerohedge.com]:

Over the past 18 months, three alarming incidents have been reported in which commercial ships traveling to or from Russian ports are suspected of severing undersea cables in the Baltic region.

Washington Post recently cited Western officials who said these cable incidents are likely maritime accidents [zerohedge.com] - not sabotage by Russia and/or China.

Due to all the cable severing risks, intentional and unintentional, a report from late November via TechCrunch [techcrunch.com] [linked by submitter] said Meta planned a new "W" formation undersea cable route around the world to "avoid areas of geopolitical tension [zerohedge.com]."

Related:

• NATO Plans to Build Satellite Links as Backups to Undersea Cables [soylentnews.org]
• Finnish Investigators Discover Anchor Drag Marks of "Almost a Hundred Kilometers" in Cable Case [soylentnews.org]
• Undersea Power Cable Connecting Finland And Estonia Experiences Outage Capacity Reduced To 35% [soylentnews.org]
• Two Undersea Internet Cables Connecting Finland and Sweden to Europe Have Been Cut [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission