Finland announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it had located in the heart of the Baltic Sea an anchor related to the serious sabotage that was carried out on several submarine cables between it and Estonia about two weeks ago. The Finnish police have made it clear that they will not release the ship Eagle S, which is suspected to be part of Russia’s “ghost fleet”, and is responsible for the serious damage that will take months to repair.
The oil tanker that carries the flag of the Cook Islands but is directly linked to Russia and its illegal smuggling efforts is expected to remain temporarily in the port where it is held in Finland. The authorities in Helsinki made it clear that she is outdated, dilapidated and has many defects – and even after the investigation into her matter is over, she will not be approved to sail again until her owner invests and fixes all the defects and dangers. Reuters said that photos of the ship after the incident show that it is missing its side anchor.
According to yesterday’s announcement, a disconnected anchor was found on the bottom of the Baltic Sea, which stood near the area where the drag marks ended on the bottom. The drag marks stretched for about 100 km – which illustrates that the tanker dropped the anchor on purpose, apparently on direct orders from Russia, in order to severely damage the cables laid in the area. Shipping experts estimated that it is unlikely that a ship would move over such a great distance with an anchor which will be dragged along the bottom of the sea without noticing it.
“The location where the anchor is located is parallel to the sailing path of Eagle S – towards the west,” the National Investigation Authority of Finland said in a statement. The lawyer of the company that owns the ship, from the United Arab Emirates, said that the damage to the submarine cables was caused outside the territorial waters of Finland – and therefore it does not have the authority to judge it and hold legal proceedings in the matter. Even before that he claimed that Finland “hijacked” the ship and should return it.
Finland’s deputy chief prosecutor said the ship’s crew members may face criminal charges and penalties. At the moment, at least eight are arrested and it has been determined that they will not be able to leave the country.
Russia’s “ghost fleet” is a fleet of old, poorly maintained ships that often move without position transmitters or with transmitters turned off. Most of these ships are registered on the oil of straw companies around the world and carry the flags of foreign countries – which allows Russia room for denial in everything related to the enforcement of sanctions against it regarding oil exports, and also in such cases of serious sabotage against critical infrastructures of countries in Northern Europe.
Of course, official Russia did not comment on the affair and did not accept responsibility, but in Europe there are growing voices saying that what clearly looks like a shadow war of Russia and its proxies in the Western countries, against the background of the war in Ukraine, must be dealt with in a much more aggressive manner. Yesterday it was reported in the newspaper yle in Finland that NATO countries are expected to place 10 more warships in the Baltic Sea – to help defend and prevent similar events in the future.
This is not the first time that a ship linked to Russia is suspected of causing serious damage to cables in the Baltic Sea. At the end of November, Europe suspected that The Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 ruptured critical submarine cables Between Lithuania and Sweden and between Finland and Germany in the heart of the Baltic Sea. According to the suspicions, the Chinese ship that left Russia intentionally sabotaged the order of the Russian authorities.
The Chinese ship was arrested by the authorities in Denmark and was guarded by NATO military vessels for a month, but Europe was unable to reach agreements with China on a full investigation and inspection of all parts of the ship. Therefore, last week, following Chinese pressure, the ship left the Denmark and returned to China, without its anchor being inspected and its responsibility for the serious damage not being proven. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, it is unlikely that the captain and crew China’s ship were not aware of the damage they caused.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine almost three years ago, Russia has begun a secret and covert campaign to damage critical and strategic infrastructures across the European continent. In a long series of serious acts of sabotage over the past few years, energy facilities, weapons factories, critical means of transportation such as electric cables of trains, and also submarine cables in a number of European countries have been damaged. In addition, it was recently revealed that Russia is trying to plant explosive devices in the planes of the shipping company DHL on flights in some countries in Europe. In all these cases, Russia carries out the acts of sabotage through a third party – which allows it room to deny and disavow the actions that may be attributed to it.