Finland probes oil tanker linked to Russia for “sabotaging” submarine cable

Finnish authorities announced Thursday that they are investigating an oil tanker that left a Russian port for “sabotaging” a power cable. Finland and Estonia which was damaged the previous day.

On Christmas Day, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were cut in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea.

Robin Lardot of Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation said an investigation had been opened into “aggravated sabotage” of the Eagle S oil tanker, which flies the flag of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.

“At the moment it is believed to be a shadow fleet vessel and the cargo was unleaded petrol loaded in a Russian port,” said Sami Rakshit from the director general of Finnish customs.

The shadow fleet refers to vessels carrying embargoed Russian crude oil and petroleum products.

“We closely monitored the situation yesterday” with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Finnish President Alexander Stubb at X.

“The risks posed by the Russian shadow fleet must be ruled out,” he added.

Eagle S is intended Port Said in Egypt and is still in the Gulf of Finland, according to the maritime traffic website.

“We have already boarded the vessel, spoken to the crew and gathered evidence,” Lardot said.

Police suspect that the tanker’s anchor may have damaged the power cable.

“Our patrol vessel traveled to the area and was able to visually determine that the anchor was missing,” Markku Hassinen of the Finnish Border Police told a news conference.

“So there is clear reason to suspect that something strange has happened,” he added.

Engineers from the Finnish and Estonian power grid companies located the damaged part of the cable.

Tensions have been rising around the Baltic since then The invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022.

In September 2022, a series of underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe, the cause of which has not yet been determined.

In October 2023, an underwater gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship.

Early on November 17 this year, the Arelion telecommunications cable running from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania was damaged.

The next day, the C-Lion 1 submarine cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock was cut south of the Swedish island of Oland.

Suspicions about the November 17 incident centered on a Chinese-flagged vessel, the Yi Peng 3, which was in the area at the time.

Sweden said on Monday that China had rejected prosecutors’ request to investigate the ship and had left the area.

European officials have said they suspect several of the incidents are sabotage related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin has dismissed as “absurd” and “laughable”.

(AFP)