Finland Identifies Pipeline Sabotage Ship

Ever since Finnish and Estonian authorities reported on October 10 that the damaged Balticconnector pipeline had been subjected to sabotage, people around the world have been trying to guess the perpetrator’s identity. On October 24, Finnish authorities named the likely culprit: Hong Kong-flagged NewNew Polar Bear. The evidence against the container ship is compelling – and her recent activities raise questions. 

“On the seabed, a 1.5 to 4 meter-wide dragging trail is seen to lead to the point of damage in the gas pipeline. In the distance of a few metres from the gas pipeline damage point, there was an anchor which is believed to have caused the wide dragging trail and the damage itself,” Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation announced on October 24. On the same day, the NBI held a news conference about its findings, which included pictures of the salvaged anchor. “Early this morning the anchor was lifted up. There are traces in it which indicate that it has been in contact with the gas pipeline,” NBI’s General Head of Investigation Risto Lohi reported.

There it was on a large monitor, the anchor that had damaged the Balticconnector pipeline. The NBI had an idea of where the anchor had come from. NewNew Polar Bear, a container ship registered in Hong Kong, had been above the Balticconnector when it was damaged. Now she was sailing in Russian Arctic waters–without an anchor. NewNew Polar Bear’s owner had refused to cooperate with Finnish authorities, Lohi said.

NewNew Polar Bear has only sailed under the Hong Kong flag since June this year; until then she sailed under Cypriote flag. Her name was also changed at the same time, and her management was taken over by NewNew Shipping Line and Hainan Xin Xin Yang Shipping of China. A month later, she set sail from St. Petersburg to Shanghai together with four other NewNew Shipping Line ships. 

They used the Northern Sea Route along Russia’s Arctic coast. The icy route, which has become more passable in recent years as a result of climate change, reduces the travel time between China’s eastern coast and Russia’s western coast by nearly a month compared to the Suez Canal route. And NewNew Polar Bear’s journey involved close collaboration between Russia and China. “To ensure safety, we will prepare two nuclear-powered icebreakers, which will be on duty, because it is impossible to predict the weather 100%. The icebreakers will approach the ships if necessary and provide assistance,” Russia’s Deputy Chairman of the State Commission for the Development of the Arctic Region Vladimir Panov told media before the five ships’ departure.

But everything went well–so well, in fact, that NewNew Polar Bear was able to turn around from Shanghai and make the return journey to the Baltic Sea via the same route, the first container ship to achieve this feat. On October 3, she reached Kaliningrad. She had proven that it was possible to transport cargo along the Northern Sea Route. 

On October 6, NewNew Polar Bear called Baltiysk near Kaliningrad. Two days later, she arrived in St. Petersburg. But during those nearly 52 hours, NewNew Polar Bear appears to have dragged her anchor across the pipeline. She was above an undersea cable connecting Finland and Estonia, and another one connecting Sweden and Estonia, at the time they too suffered damage by external force on October 7 and 8. In the afternoon of October 8, NewNew Polar Bear arrived at St. Petersburg. After two days there, she returned to Kaliningrad. Now she’s on her way across the Arctic again.

The unassuming container ship is already historic, having completed an Arctic round-trip journey without assistance. Why would her owners have involved her in sabotage of a pipeline in the Baltic Sea? Their refusal to speak with the Finnish investigators is telling.