Russian captain jailed over Baltic cable sabotage

A Finnish court jailed a Russian cargo ship captain and a senior crew member Thursday after convicting them of aggravated sabotage over damage to undersea cables linking Finland and Estonia.

The Helsinki district court said the freighter Fitburg dragged an anchor along the seabed for about 130 kilometres outside Finland's territorial waters, damaging two telecommunications cables. The 132-metre cargo ship, registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, was travelling from Russia to Israel when Finnish authorities stopped it on December 31, 2025.

The court sentenced the Russian captain to three years and six months in prison and the Azerbaijani crew member to two years and 10 months. It also ordered them to pay compensation for damage to the cables and a gas pipeline, as well as investigation costs.

The defendants denied the charges during the trial, arguing that Finland did not have jurisdiction because the damaged cables were outside Finnish territorial waters. The court said the case could be heard in Finland because it concerned intentional offences whose consequences had manifested in Finland.

The case came amid several suspected cable sabotage incidents in the Baltic Sea in recent years. Many experts and politicians say such incidents are part of Russia's "hybrid war" against Western countries during its invasion of Ukraine.