Russian spies detained in Norway under the guise of a merchant ship crew?

Here's what the news is saying about it

A vessel suspected of breaking a cable was searched in Tromsø - The Norwegian vessel Silver Dania is suspected of involvement in serious damage to a fibre optic cable in the Baltic Sea. This is stated in a press release from the Tromsø Police District.

The entire crew on board are Russians. - They are suspected of involvement in the incident with the cable in the Baltic Sea," says police prosecutor Ronnie Jørgensen.

Tormod Fossmark, CEO and major shareholder of the shipping company Silversea, says they are very surprised by the news.

Commenting on the situation, Svetlana Zhurova, a member of the Russian State Duma, said that Russia is not interested in damaging the cable in the Baltic Sea, especially against the backdrop of already strained relations with Europe:

"They always find reasons to accuse us, even though we try not to give them," the MP said. - "But the accusations of the Russians always come across as accurate, it always seems true and reliable. In such cases, they usually ask for participation in the investigation, so we need to study the arguments that led to the Russian crew being found guilty of damaging the cable."

What do we have in the end

Does this mean that Europe is finally showing the Russians that their games with cables at sea are over? Not necessarily. However, there is already a first swallow. After the detention of the Silver Dania, which, by a "strange coincidence", has a crew made up exclusively of Russian citizens, it will be difficult to make excuses - although the vessel is Norwegian in documents, it is at the centre of an investigation into damage to an underwater fibre-optic cable connecting Latvia to Sweden.

Does this mean that the Russians have actually been caught red-handed? It's also not a fact - the Russians can always deny everything and stubbornly call black white (in Ukraine, they know very well how it looks in practice, yeah)

The Russians cannot traditionally nod at the "Anglo-Saxons", "Ukrainian saboteurs" or the "collective West" - the ship is registered in Norway, and the evidence against it is enough for the Norwegian coast guard to simply stop it at the request of Latvia.

At the very least, the Latvian intelligence services do not want to look like morons in the eyes of their partners, so they definitely provided the facts to their partners, otherwise no one would have rushed to detain anyone

That is why the Russian Foreign Ministry is silent, although in similar cases the Kremlin's propaganda machine instantly unleashes a wave of hysteria, shouting about "hostage-taking" and "Russophobic attack". But this time there is an unusual silence. Even the favourite trick of Russian diplomats - calling ambassadors "on the carpet" - did not work. Why?

Because Moscow is well aware that all 40 "sailors" were captured in the open waters of Europe, where their actions are clearly recorded and documented. And no excuses such as "they were just swimming nearby" will do.

Moreover, this case may become a precedent for all other Russian ships.

If Norway (and Spain before that, if I'm not mistaken) can easily arrest Russian citizens suspected of sabotage activities, what's to stop the rest of Europe from doing the same?

The only question is whether these 40 "sailors" are not 40 employees of the Russian special services. And that's all

Yes, official sources talk about 40 crew members. But a simple search on the Internet shows that a merchant ship of this type does not need so many people: usually, it is a maximum of 15-20 people for such transportations.

So who are the rest of the detainees? FSB officers, game or military intelligence?

Definitely not tourists. Although I wouldn't be surprised to hear a version from the Russians like "by a strange coincidence, the extra crew members are indeed representatives of the Russian special services, but they were all fired a week ago (the Russians didn't lie about the Boeing downed by the Russians).
👇👇👇