PITY THE Baltic sea-creatures who just want a quiet life; their patch has never been busier. On October 17th Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Sweden’s minister for civil defence, said that a communications cable between Sweden and Estonia had been partially damaged earlier in the month. It was the latest of several suspicious incidents that have given rise to fears that Russia is making mischief underwater.
On October 8th the nearby Balticconnector gas pipeline and a communications cable between Finland and Estonia were damaged due to what Sauli Niinisto, Finland’s president, called “external activity”. The two cables were some distance from one another. Finnish police later said the cause was “an external mechanical force”, with signs of an “extremely heavy object” left on the seabed.