- An undersea cable in the Baltic Sea that provides power to Estonia was cut on Wednesday.
- Finnish authorities say they’ve seized an oil tanker they suspect caused the outage.
- Finland’s president raised concerns of Russia’s “shadow fleet” on social media.
Finnish authorities said they’ve seized an oil tanker on Thursday as part of its probe into the cutting of an undersea cable in the Baltic Sea which provides electricity to Estonia.
Finnish customs authorities and the European Union’s executive commission said the tanker may be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, The Associated Press reported.
Finland police said in a news release that the vessel, Eagle S, was registered in Cook Islands. MarineTraffic, a global ship tracking website, also stated that the ship was flying under the flag of Cook Islands and was sailing between St. Petersburg, Russia, and Port Said, Egypt.
On Wednesday, Finnish authorities began investigating the rupture of Estlink-2, an undersea power cable connected between Finland and Estonia, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on X.
Finland police said in the press release that the case is being investigated as “aggravated criminal mischief.”
A spokesperson for Finland’s police did not respond to a request for comment sent outside of working hours.
Russia has been using a network of mostly aging ships that are difficult to trace back to the country in order to evade costly Western sanctions that were imposed after the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.
According to the Center for Research on Energy and Clear Air, a Finland-based think tank, more than half of the 369 vessels exporting Russian crude oil and oil products in November were shadow tankers.
“Our main task is to find effective means to stop the shadow fleet,” Orpo said at a news conference, according to The New York Times. “The shadow fleet pumps money into Russia’s war fund so that Russia can continue to wage its war in Ukraine against the people of Ukraine, and it has to be stopped.”
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb also said in a post on X that the risks of Russia’s shadow fleet need to be addressed.
The damage to the Estlink-2 further highlights growing concerns among countries around the risks of sabotage against undersea power cables and pipelines.
In November, two data cables were cut under the Baltic Sea, linking Germany and Finland as well as Sweden and Lithuania.
German Foreign Minister Boris Pistorius said without evidence that the incident was no accident.
“We have to assume, without certain information, that the damage is caused by sabotage,” he said.
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