Report: U.S. is Convinced That Eagle S Cable Incident Was Accidental

Since late December, the Russia-linked tanker Eagle S has been under arrest in Finland on suspicion of rupturing five subsea cables by dragging her anchor for 50 miles. The Christmas Day incident was the latest in a series of three suspected sabotage attacks on the Baltic seabed, all involving vessels headed to or from Russia. According to The Washington Post, senior intelligence officials in the U.S. and the EU have become convinced that these repeat incidents were all accidents caused by inexperienced crewmembers, and had nothing to do with Russian “hybrid” warfare efforts. 

The Post’s report was received with skepticism by some in Finland. Pekka Toveri, former head of Finland’s military intelligence agency, told the paper that the accidental-damage theo…