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577 points mooreds | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.002s | source
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staplung ◴[] No.42176496[source]
It's worth mentioning that cable breakages happen quite often; globally about 200 times per year [1] and the article itself mentions that just last year, two other cables and a gas pipeline were taken out by an anchor. The Gulf of Finland is evidently quite shallow. From what I understand, cable repair ships are likely to use ROVs for parts of repair jobs but only when the water is shallow so hopefully they can figure out whether the damage looks like sabotage before they sever the cable to repair it. Of course, if you're a bad actor and want plausible deniability, maybe you'd make it look like anchor damage or, deliberately drag an anchor right over the cables.

Cable repairs are certainly annoying and for the operator of the cable, expensive. However, they are usually repaired relatively quickly. I'd be more worried if many more cables were severed at the same time. If you're only going to break one or two a year, you might as well not bother.

1: https://www.theverge.com/c/24070570/internet-cables-undersea...

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Etheryte ◴[] No.42177868[source]
This is a misleading framing. The two cables last year were not taken out by an anchor as an accident, it was literally a ship putting down its anchor just before the cable and then dragging it over the cable. In other words, sabotage. There's no point in trying to color any of this with rose tinted glasses when it's clear who's done it and why.
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gorbachev[dead post] ◴[] No.42178728[source]
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xp84[dead post] ◴[] No.42179072[source]
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rrr_oh_man ◴[] No.42180365[source]
Don’t trust the Je… eh, Russians.

I’m not sure whether you are serious with that xenophobic comment.

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olivermuty ◴[] No.42180864[source]
Don’t trust the Russians has been safe doctrine in europe for several decades.

Bandit state.

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sabbaticaldev ◴[] No.42181619[source]
Same is said about the english, spanish, french, dutch colonizers, still didn’t pay for wreaking the world in their favor.
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1. Sabinus ◴[] No.42182063[source]
But for the French they all got rid of their colonies. Russia's historical land empire lives on, and the breakup of their most recent greater one is mourned by their current leader. Lets have some perspective.
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2. sabbaticaldev ◴[] No.42182372[source]
great example, the french. Still encrusted north of brazil and calling themselves part of the Amazon. you really should have some perspective
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3. Sabinus ◴[] No.42189114[source]
I'm not interested in participating in your 'whatabout those evil European colonisers'. Pointing to historical colonies and injustice to excuse worse from Russia now isn't adding to the conversation.
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