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Comment by dh2022 | Hacker News Reader

dh2022

Hopefully Europe got the message and will start arresting and prosecuting the sailors who damage these cables. Europe should impound the vessels as well. Before soon Russia and China will run out sailors and vessels.

This is the second such incident in a row that we know where the sailors and the vessels have been seized. Hope Europe will keep doing the same for future sabotages.

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By all means seize the vessels. But most of the sailors on the Russian shadow merchant fleet are actually citizens of neutral countries. Russia might have paid off the master or something but prosecuting random seamen who were following legal orders to drop an anchor or whatever would be cruel and ineffective. Give them a hot meal and deport them.

I think if the sailors are not arrested then other sailors will be enticed by higher than average wages to join these vessels. I feel like the sailors knew what they signed up for. At the very least arrest the captain and onboard officers.

PS. This situation reminds me of a presentation at my former company by some lawyers who sued US Government on behalf of some Gitmo inmates. The inmates survived an attack by US forces in the middle of Afganistan and then were arrested. The inmates' legal case (as per lawyers) was they did not know what cargo they transported - and yet they were paid 3-4 times the usual amount for transport cargo in combat region almost deserted by civilians. I am not convinced these inmates were 100% innocent....

So arrest the one FSB/GRU guy on board. Shouldn't be hard to find them.

Back in the day, sailors would be hanged by the neck until dead for acts of piracy like this.

It is bad to "just follow orders" to drop anchor without looking where (assuming they didn't) and drag it along the seabed while continuing to sail.

If they share who gave the order to do illegal damage, maybe they will receive more lenient sentencing.

Combined population of, what, somewhere around the 1.5 billion mark.

I can’t see them running out of sympathetic merchant sailors anytime soon.

China isn't involved in naval sabotage in Europe. They're doing their own thing in the South China Sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line

At risk of being flippant, and I appreciate your response and over valuable contributions to this forum…

How would you know?

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