COLD WAR II: Finland Boards Russian Shadow Fleet Tanker After Subsea Cables Go Offline.
Finland’s police and border patrol have boarded the Eagle S oil tanker, which is part of Russia’s shadow fleet while investigating the cause of an interruption of subsea power and data cables linking Finland with Estonia, Finnish police said on Thursday.
The tanker, Eagle S, was traveling in the Baltic Sea under the flag of the Cook Islands and was fully loaded with unleaded gasoline, the Finnish police and other authorities said at a news conference, as carried by Bloomberg.
The Eagle S was spotted to be missing its anchor and it could have been this missing anchor that has caused the damage to the subsea cable links.
The Estlink-2 power link went offline on Wednesday afternoon. By early Thursday afternoon investigations were ongoing in both Finland and Estonia on the cause of the damage.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna on Thursday discussed the incidents involving submarine infrastructure with Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, Tsahkna said in a statement.
“Damage to critical submarine infrastructure has become so frequent that it is difficult to believe this is accidental or merely poor seamanship. We must understand that damage to submarine infrastructure has become more systematic and thus must be regarded as attacks against our vital structures,” the Estonian foreign minister said.
“Can’t rule out deliberate damage to the cable,” Tsahkna posted on X.
More:
UPDATE!
EAGLE S, vessel suspected of causing cable damage is at anchor in Finnish territorial waters.
A no-fly zone has been imposed on the area.
Finnish police and the Border Guard have boarded the ship, investigations are ongoing.
THIS is how you do these things! 💪🇫🇮
— Tomi 🇺🇦🇫🇮 (@TallbarFIN) December 26, 2024
And here’s a thread I found interesting on the Finnish Border Guard guys who got the job done.
Only tangentially related but still amusing: Sanctioned Russian LNG Cargo Ends Across-the-World Trip Without Finding Buyer. “After the journey from Europe to Russia’s Far East, Pioneer was spotted in December offloading the cargo in a Russian floating storage unit near Kamchatka, according to the vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.”