Finland Convicts Fitburg Captain and Crew Member Over Subsea Cable Sabotage

The Helsinki District Court sentenced Russian captain Andrei Maksimenko to three years and six months in prison and Azerbaijani boatswain Vusal Majidov to two years and ten months, after finding them guilty of aggravated criminal damage for deliberately damaging two submarine telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland on December 31, 2025. Both were taken into custody immediately after the ruling was announced.

The case involves the general cargo vessel Fitburg, flagged in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, which was sailing from Saint Petersburg to Haifa, Israel, carrying steel products. According to the investigation, the vessel dragged its damaged anchor and chain across approximately 130 kilometers of seabed, damaging two telecommunications cables belonging to Elisa and Arelion Finland. The anchor also crossed seven other telecommunications and power cables, as well as a gas pipeline, creating the risk of further damage to critical infrastructure.

The court found that the anchor had been lowered after the vessel departed Saint Petersburg but before it left Russian territorial waters, and concluded that both crew members must have known it was dragging along the seabed while the vessel continued its voyage. The court further established that the boatswain actively contributed to keeping the vessel underway for around two hours after Finnish authorities first made contact with the ship.

Both defendants denied committing any offense and challenged Finland's jurisdiction, arguing that the damage occurred outside its territorial waters. The court rejected that argument, finding that the offenses were intentional and their consequences were felt in Finland. According to Ports News Russia, the convicted men must jointly pay compensation of approximately €1.9 million ($2.1 million), and Maksimenko must individually pay a further €85,000 ($95,000). A separate charge of aggravated interference with telecommunications was dismissed as it was subsumed by the main conviction. The ruling is not final: the captain's lawyer announced he will appeal, while the boatswain is still weighing whether to challenge the sentence.

Finnish authorities intercepted the Fitburg on December 31, 2025, and escorted it to Kantvik, west of Helsinki; the vessel was later released. Built in 2001, the Fitburg was renamed Finex in March 2026 and had fourteen crew members from Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The ruling comes after a similar case involving the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S, whose crew faced charges for damaging five submarine cables in December 2024; that case was initially dismissed by the same court on jurisdictional grounds in October 2025, but an appeals court overturned that decision in August of this year and ordered it to be reconsidered.