In every community, the desire to be connected to the internet is around and every level of government has embraced the idea. There are some governments around the world which says connection to the internet is a right. If it is right, that means the government has to ensure all its citizens have internet access and it is affordable or essentially free. Most governments want its citizens connected for people to search the internet and generate economic returns. Technically the more places are connected, the more people can work from anywhere even though if you listen to people in Washington, they want people in the office.

In an article Eessi Lehto and Andrius Sytas of Reuters, in Finland an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia was damaged and 4 internet lines were broken. Was it an accident or done on purpose. The main culprit is a Russian ship carrying oil named the Eagle S. In the world of shipping, ships are registered in tax hazens around the world and the Eagle S is registered in the Cook Islands which is in the South Pacific Ocean.

The Finnish Coast Guard crew boarded the Eagle S to investigate according to the director of Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, Robin Lardot. This was grave sabotage.

The Eagle S is believed to be part of Russia’ shadow fleet of aging tankers that seek to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.

Two of the fibre-optic cables owned by Finnish operator Elisa linked Finland and Estonia. A third cable is owned by China’s Citic. The 4th cable is owned by Finnish group Cinia runs between Finland and Germany.

Both the Finnish and Estonian governments held extraordinary meetings to access the situation.

Baltic Sea nations have seen a number of internet connections broken since 2022, although it is always a possibility that it was a technical malfunction and/or an accident.

The Eagle S Panamax oil tanker crossed the Estlink 2 electricity cable at 10:26 GMT, a Reuters review of Marine Traffic ship tracking data showed, identical to the time with the power outage occurred. The time to fix the outage can be months.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, infrastructure is a key element of every country and working infrastructure allows for economic growth. If the infrastructure is damaged, then something will be weakened. Supplies, access, customers go the ability to make profits. The world has changed to what infrastructure is and what countries will do if the infrastructure is damaged.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.