Sweden backs Lithuanian protest against Russia’s conduct near NordBalt

Pezhman Fivrin, spokesman for the Swedish Foreign Ministry, told BNS that Stockholm saw the Russian behavior as violation of international law.

“Sweden has been in contact with Russian authorities and have discussed this issue and stated that this is violation of international law. We are supporting Lithuania in this matter. On Monday, the Foreign Ministry will discuss how to follow this issue up,” the diplomat told BNS in a telephone interview from Stockholm.

The ministry said that conduct of the Russian Navy were aimed at hindering the laying of the NordBalt cable.

Litgrid, the Lithuanian power transmission system operator in charge of the project, said that the ship guarding the laying of NordBalt cable between Lithuania and Sweden on Thursday was forced out of the zone has not affected the project. However, the company confirmed that this was the third time this year that the ship guarding the cable in the Baltic Sea had to deviate from its route by direction of Russia’s warships.

The Russian Embassy was not available for comment on Thursday.