NATO to Strengthen Presence in Baltic Sea

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will “enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea,” nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Friday. This is in response to suspected Russian sabotage of an undersea cable this week and the broader increase in suspected Russian and Chinese sabotage in the region.

A history: The Estlink 2, one of two undersea cables connecting Estonia and Finland, suffered damage on Wednesday. Similar damage to other undersea cables has been reported previously.

• In November, two other Baltic undersea cables were severed: one between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, with the Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 almost certainly responsible.
• In October 2023, a Chinese ship dragged its anchor over the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, severely damaging it.
• Sweden said in October 2023 that a separate underwater cable that connects it with Estonia was also damaged.

Sabotage? German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said officials should assume the Estlink 2 was sabotaged, even though he offered no evidence to back this claim.

• Finland launched an investigation into the incident, seizing an oil tanker on Thursday suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” and causing Wednesday’s outage.
• Estonia launched a naval mission to guard Estlink 1 on Friday.

Changing Europe: The Bible prophesies that fear of Russia will cause Europe, led by Germany, to militarize and unify. Developments such as these help set the stage for a soon-coming nuclear World War iii.

To learn more, read “10 Ways Russia’s Invasion Changed Germany Militarily.”