Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he is sceptical about a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article that suggested Russian intelligence had directed the captain of a Chinese cargo ship to damage Nordic subsea telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea last month.
The Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3 is suspected of damaging two undersea cables, one linking Finland and Germany, and the second between Sweden and Lithuania.
Stubb made the comments at a press conference on Tuesday, following a meeting of Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) leaders in Tallinn, Estonia.
Finland and Sweden are jointly investigating the Baltic Sea incidents, while Russia has denied involvement, with the Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov calling the claims "absurd and ridiculous".
The WSJ report suggested that Nordic authorities have not wanted to worry citizens by publicly blaming Russia.
The US-based paper cited sources alleging that a Russian Navy corvette Merkury vessel was in the Kattegat Sea area between Denmark and Sweden on 21 November, conducting electronic reconnaissance of the Yi Peng 3 and the cargo ship's surroundings. That was a few days after the cables were first reported broken, on 18 November.
Both of the damaged cables were repaired before the end of November.
According to the WSJ, the Russian Navy ship transmitted encrypted information from the location to its headquarters in Kaliningrad.
The Merkury corvette is part of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, mainly operating in the Mediterranean Sea to escort Russian cargo ships violating sanctions.
On Tuesday, Stubb said that he found it "terribly difficult" to agree with the Wall Street Journal's reporting on the matter, "based on the information I have".
"We are still focused on finding out what happened. At the moment, discussions are taking place with the Chinese, Danes, Swedes and others. But at least at this stage, we cannot verify Russian involvement in any way," Stubb said.
He added that the US newspaper had other "interesting news".
"Among other things, it said Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had already held discussions. That has not been verified either," Stubb said, adding that the current flood of information was enormous.
"Sometimes information is correct, and sometimes it is wrong," the Finnish president said.
