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Poland: Divers in the Baltic Sea raise questions – sabotage planned?

Poland: Divers in the Baltic Sea raise questions – sabotage planned?

What are three men doing in the middle of the night, in rough seas and with professional diving equipment off the coast of Poland on the Baltic Sea? There are doubts about the statements made by the men – not least because they were traveling near critical infrastructure.

A mysterious incident on the Polish Baltic Sea startled the country’s security authorities – but apparently too late. Saboteurs may have been at work near a proposed gas terminal, and investigations are ongoing.

The trigger was a night-time operation by Polish sea rescuers last weekend. A motorboat with three men on board was reportedly unable to maneuver three nautical miles off the coast of Gdansk in rough conditions and could not return to land. In addition to the usual diving equipment, the men also had an underwater scooter on board, with which divers can be pulled quickly and unobtrusively over long distances through the water – greetings from James Bond’s “Thunderball”.

Back on land, the rescued said they were Spanish divers and were looking for amber. The Polish authorities resigned themselves to the explanation and let the men go. They are said to have left Poland in the meantime, as reported by the US broadcaster CBS, citing Polish media.

Mysterious diving incident off the coast of Gdansk

In the meantime, however, serious doubts have arisen about the version of the shipwrecked people, fueling suspicions of a secret operation in Polish waters.

So it is completely unusual to look for amber in the dark, in strong winds, high waves and around three degrees water temperature. “In my 12-year career in sea rescue, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” CBS quoted a spokesman for the rescuers as saying. The use of an underwater scooter to search for amber is also described as inexpedient, as it stirs up the seabed and reduces visibility.

The question also arises as to why the castaways waited several hours under the prevailing conditions before calling for help. Their unregistered boat did not even have the required navigation lights, Polish television station TVN24 reported. UV lamps, which would be needed for the nightly search for amber, were also not on board.

Further inconsistencies were noticed during the later check: The rescued men were therefore neither authorized to lead their four-meter-long boat, nor did they have a license to dive.

The fact that only one of them – with an alleged Spanish passport – was able to identify himself and the other two are said to have given false telephone numbers for their identification is another oddity.

However, what in retrospect has particularly startled the Polish authorities is the location to which the sea rescuers were called – in the immediate vicinity of the Naftoport facility in the port of Gdańsk, the largest in Poland. This plays an important role in the supply of crude oil to Poland, but also to the Schwedt refinery in Brandenburg. And there in the Bay of Gdańsk, since last summer, a floating liquefied gas terminal including lines to the mainland is to be built, which is intended to ensure energy security in central Poland. Gdansk is only about 60 kilometers west of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which in times of the Ukraine war also fueled speculation about the true intentions of the three divers.

Poles are examining possible sabotage plans

“The incident is worth investigating,” a former Polish counterintelligence officer told InfoSecurity24.pl. The explanations of the rescued are “at least bizarre”. In addition to a possible secret operation in connection with Poland’s critical infrastructure, the expert also considers the activities of drug smugglers to be a possible explanation for the unusual process outside Gdansk.

Because the incident involuntarily awakens memories of the blasting of the Nord Stream pipelines in September off the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm. Sabotage is suspected there, including with the use of diving equipment. However, it is still unknown who was behind the attack. State actors are assumed. The three pipeline strands may have been irrevocably destroyed.

However, what is behind the latest diver incident on the Polish Baltic Sea is still completely unclear days later: A secret service operation, criminals or actually harmless amber divers?

The Polish security authorities are now taking the incident more seriously than they did in the hours after the sea rescue – the Polish media has criticized their previous actions. The police announced investigations.

According to the Associated Press news agency, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki requested a comprehensive intelligence report. “Of course it may be that they were dangerous people, but it may also turn out that these were not dangerous people and that what they said is true,” said the politician. He wants to have the protection of the country’s critical infrastructure checked.

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Source: Stern

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