NATO announced plans to boost patrols in the Baltic Sea after a string of incidents involving the severing of telecommunications and energy cables in the region, initially blamed on a Russian “hybrid campaign” against Europe.
Now, an “emerging consensus” among US and European intelligence agencies is that the cables were damaged by accident.
Multiple officials told the Washington Post Sunday that investigations have found “no indication” that the damage, caused by commercial vessels dragging their anchors across the underwater infrastructure, “did so intentionally or at the direction of Moscow.”
Rather, officials said intercepted communications and other classified info found that they were caused by “inexperienced crews serving aboard poorly maintained vessels.”