When the police in Tromsø call for a live press conference, it is emphasized that they are acting on a request from colleagues in Latvia and that the suspected cable sabotage is classified as gross vandalism.
At the same time as we stand here, personnel are on board the vessel, says Jørgensen, who works at the Troms police district.
It is necessary to conduct both forensic investigations and digital inquiries and interviews.
Russian crew
The current freighter is called Silver Dania, built in 1989 and is over 113 meters long, according to NRK. It arrived at the port in Tromsø just before 7 am on Friday. The crew consists of eleven Russian citizens.
According to the police, both the crew and the shipping company are cooperating with Norwegian authorities and followed voluntarily, writes NTB.
The current damage was caused to a data cable between Gotland and the Latvian Ventspils in the Baltic Sea on Sunday. The cable lay at a depth of 50 meters and is owned by the Latvian state radio and TV center.
Silver Dania sails between the two Russian cities of St. Petersburg and Murmansk, according to the police. The route thus passes through the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, and the Öresund, and then along the entire Norwegian coast northwards, where it passes Tromsø.
No anchor out?
Tormod Bo Fossmark, CEO of the shipping company Silver Sea in Bergen, which owns Silver Dania, claims that they have done nothing wrong.
We sailed through the current area around Gotland at 13.5 knots at the current time. We did not have any anchor out, says Fossmark to the trade magazine Fiskeribladet.
Silver Sea is the only Norwegian shipping company that has not broken off fisheries cooperation with Russia in the light of the country's war of aggression against Ukraine, writes Fiskeribladet. The company's vessels are said to have made over 30 voyages with fish cargo between Murmansk and the Netherlands.
The Norwegian operation began late on Thursday with the support of the coast guard. The security police in Norway are being kept informed.
