Russian firm won't seek compensation for damaged Baltic cable - source

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian state company Rostelecom will not seek compensation for damage to a fiber optic cable that was severed in the Baltic Sea last month and will complete the repair at its own expense, a company source told Reuters on Wednesday.

The company said on Tuesday that the cable was damaged when a Chinese container ship, the NewNew Polar Bear, passed over it late on Oct. 7.

Finnish investigators suspect the same vessel was responsible shortly afterwards for rupturing a gas pipeline to Estonia, the Balticconnector, by dragging its anchor across the sea bed.

Two other Baltic telecoms cables along the ship's route were damaged on the same night. The ship's owners have declined to comment, but China has said it will supply relevant information in accordance with international law.

Rostelecom has said a specialised vessel began repairs on Nov. 5 on the fiber optic cable, which runs from St Petersburg to Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, and the source said it would make an announcement once these were complete.

Finland said on Wednesday it had informed Russia about its investigation into the damage to the Balticconnector pipeline, but Moscow had not requested Finnish help in probing the incident with the Russian cable.

(Reporting by Elena Fabrichnaya, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)