While the world was watching U.S. forces’ spectacular kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, dramatic happenings were unfolding in the Baltic Sea and its Gulf of Finland arm, too. But with Venezuela holding the world’s attention, few people paid any mind to the Baltic Sea. That’s a pity, because within the course of less than a week, six cables were mauled there. After a yearlong hiatus, the cable-cutting specter appears to have returned. Now, with NATO distracted by a crisis over Greenland, the question is what Western states can do about these attacks.

The United States’ Jan. 3 intervention in Venezuela was an operation perfectly suited to television: explosions; darkness; and low-flying helicopters carrying troops who descended, seized Maduro and his wife, and whisked them out of the country. No wonder large chunks of the world could think and speak of nothing else.

While the world was watching U.S. forces’ spectacular kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, dramatic happenings were unfolding in the Baltic Sea and its Gulf of Finland arm, too. But with Venezuela holding the world’s attention, few people paid any mind to the Baltic Sea. That’s a pity, because within the course of less than a week, six cables were mauled there. After a yearlong hiatus, the cable-cutting specter appears to have returned. Now, with NATO distracted by a crisis over Greenland, the question is what Western states can do about these attacks.

The United States’ Jan. 3 intervention in Venezuela was an operation perfectly suited to television: explosions; darkness; and low-flying helicopters carrying troops who descended, seized Maduro and his wife, and whisked them out of the country. No wonder large chunks of the world could think and speak of nothing else.

On the other side of the world, a completely different drama was unfolding. On Dec. 31, a data cable connecting Finland and Estonia malfunctioned, and it quickly became clear that it had been struck by an external object. The Finnish and Estonian authorities quickly identified the likely........

© Foreign Policy