Early on Oct. 8, a gas pipeline and a telecoms cable connecting Finland and Estonia were broken, in what Finnish investigators say may have been deliberate sabotage.
The ships are: the NewNew Polar Bear, a Chinese container ship travelling between China and Europe via the Northern Sea Route in the Arctic, and the Sevmorput, a nuclear-powered cargo vessel transiting between Murmansk and St. Petersburg.
Based on vessel tracking data, Reuters matched the ships' path with the locations where the damage occurred at all three sites.
The time the NewNew Polar Bear crossed the pipeline matches the time when Norwegian seismologists registered a small seismic event in the pipeline's vicinity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed as "rubbish" the idea that Russia damaged the Finnish-Estonia gas pipeline.
Persons:
Elisa, Vladimir Putin, Nerijus Adomaitis, Marie, Gwladys Fouche, Jonathan Oatis
Organizations:
REUTERS, Rights, NATO, Reuters, Estonian Navy, NewNew Shipping, Marie Mannes, Thomson
Locations:
Paldiski, Estonia, Handout, Rights OSLO, Russian, Gulf, Finland, Sweden, Stockholm, Tallinn, Baltic, Helsinki, Moscow, Beijing, MarineTraffic, China, Europe, Murmansk, St . Petersburg, Gulf of Finland, Swedish, Estonian, Russia, Finnish, Oslo