Finland to disconnect fiber-optic link to Russia as lease expires

Finland's national electricity transmission operator has confirmed it will disconnect a fiber-optic telecommunications link to Russia, removing another piece of cross-border infrastructure that remained in place after electricity trade between the two countries ended following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

State-owned grid operator Fingrid told Recorded Future News on Friday that the telecommunications connection will be taken out of service when the current lease agreement expires, reportedly at the end of the year.

"The two telecommunications connections were part of the cross-border electricity transmission connection between Finland and Russia," a Fingrid spokesperson said. "This electricity transmission connection ceased operating in 2022, and the physical infrastructure has since been dismantled."

Authorities have not detailed how much internet traffic would be affected. 

"To our knowledge, the impact of this decision on telecommunications connectivity between the two countries is very limited," the spokesperson added.

Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported earlier this week that only one fiber-optic cable is affected, while earlier reporting by the Russian business daily Kommersant suggested multiple cables could be disconnected.

Kommersant, citing anonymous telecommunications industry sources, reported that Fingrid had warned Russian telecommunications operators it would stop maintaining power transmission towers carrying fiber-optic communications infrastructure. The newspaper said operators are negotiating alternative routes with Finnish telecommunications companies.

Russia's state-owned grid operator Rosseti told Kommersant that the section of the cross-border transmission line under its control has operated under restricted conditions since 2022, with no electricity transmission taking place. The company added that the infrastructure would instead be repurposed for domestic electricity sector needs and that it had received no information about the status of the Finnish section of the line.

The Russian newspaper said the move could reduce redundancy for international internet traffic serving northwestern Russia, although industry sources told the publication the overall impact on internet connectivity is expected to be limited because traffic can be rerouted through other international links, including routes through Belarus, the Baltic states, and submarine cables in the Baltic Sea.

Recorded Future News could not independently verify Kommersant's reporting.

Before electricity trade was suspended, Fingrid operated three 400-kilovolt and two 110-kilovolt transmission lines connecting Finland and Russia. In 2021, those lines carried 9.1 terawatt-hours of electricity imports into Finland, according to Kommersant. Half of Fingrid is owned by the Finnish state, with the remainder owned by financial and insurance institutions.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Finland’s subsequent decision to join NATO. Finnish authorities have repeatedly warned about Russian influence operations and sabotage targeting critical infrastructure, including telecommunications networks and undersea cables. The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service said in 2023 that the Kremlin now views Finland as a hostile country.