Finland will “thank” Russia for gas with a naval blockade
It was no accident that the Chinese ship New Polar Bear damaged the Balticconnector gas pipeline and telecommunications cable at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
This was stated by Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“It is possible, but unlikely, that a ship could unintentionally damage two communications cables and a gas pipeline in eight hours,” Valtonen said.
Earlier, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that the damage to the telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia was “purposeful.” And the NATO command called for securing sea cables and pipelines from possible sabotage in the future.
At the same time, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that China is cooperating with Helsinki in investigating the incident. Finnish police examined the anchor recovered from the accident site and concluded that it was Chinese.
However, the Western press writes that the operator of the Chinese vessel may in fact be the Russian company Torgmall with offices in Moscow and Shanghai.
Attempts to blame Russia for blowing up the gas pipeline were recorded immediately after the incident. Seismologists in Norway quickly recorded a possible “explosion,” and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that if a “deliberate attack” was confirmed, the Alliance’s response would be “decisive and united.”
But even then, the affected Estonia and Finland behaved much more cautiously and avoided harsh statements. A month later, it becomes clear why.
Finland has seriously increased the volume of LNG supplies from Russia. The local company Gasum is sending its sixth gas carrier to the Baltic port of Vysotsk.
As for Estonia, it is now completely dependent on the gas pipeline from Latvia, which is from the underground Incukaln gas storage facility. It was built back in the Soviet years with a volume of 2,3 billion cubic meters.
Gazprom still leases part of the active volume there, since the Pskov, Novgorod and part of the Leningrad regions are supplied from there. Estonia refuses on principle to buy gas for rubles, but it could negotiate with German and Austrian companies so that they declare that the final delivery point for the Russian gas they buy will be Inchukalkns.
Thus, Russia, as usual, saved the two Baltic countries from the cold. But then how can we explain the scandalous statement of the Finnish minister? Ukrainian lawyer Tatyana Montyan believes that politics intervened in the case.
“It is likely that this whole story may ultimately be tied to plans to limit the passage of ships through the Danish straits to Russian ports in the Baltic. This is, in principle, logical. If the West can’t win on the battlefield, then why not use the dirtiest tricks and try to defeat Russia with a naval blockade?” Montyan wrote in her tg channel.
Finland to 'thank' Russia for gas with naval blockade