Finland seizes a Russian oil tanker suspected of cutting underwater cables

An undersea power cable running between Finland and Estonia was cut on Christmas Day. Finland is certain that Russia is to blame. On Thursday, Finnish authorities boarded an oil tanker that forms part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” used to evade sanctions and was spotted passing over the EstLink 2 underwater cable while it was idle. According to the Financial Times.

per The GuardianThe incident occurred at 12:26 pm local time on Wednesday, and Arto Pahkin, head of Finland’s power grid operations, immediately said that sabotage could not be ruled out. Finnish authorities also confirmed that damage had been caused to At least three more cableslikely part of the same incident.

This led to the seizure of the “Eagle S” oil tanker, registered in the Cook Islands but believed to belong to Russia. The ship’s tracking data indicates that it was carrying oil from Russia to Egypt, but it appears to have caused some chaos along the way. Authorities believe the ship’s anchor, which was not found on board, was used to cut cables.

Authorities believe Eagle S is part of Russia Shadow fleetWhich the country has been using since the beginning of its war with Ukraine to evade Western sanctions. The fleet consists of old, dilapidated ships whose ownership Russia obscures using a variety of techniques including labyrinthine management structures, frequent transfer of cargo between ships, falsified information, identification system outages, and other schemes. It is believed that the country is working around 600 ships As part of its unregistered oil business. Because many of these ships carry oil and are poorly maintained, they often violate modern safety standards and ignore regulations, resulting in additional damage including Oil spills.

The cable cutting on Christmas Day is the latest in a series of incidents in which undersea cables linking NATO countries have been cut. Last month, two fiber-optic cables – one running between Finland and Germany, the other connecting Lithuania and Sweden – were installed in the Baltic Sea.It was cut off. These are also believed to be the work of Russia’s shadow fleet, which used to be stationed near critical infrastructure in the Baltic and North Seas. According to the New York Times.

While attacks on these cables have not yet resulted in any tangible outages, they have led to growing concern about how this underwater infrastructure might be targeted in future conflicts. Reports have suggested China has used similar tactics in the past, using boat anchors to destroy undersea cables. It’s relatively An easy attack to executesince most cables are as thick as a garden hose and remain exposed on the sea floor. Countries are exploring additional protections for these key parts of communication to prevent future attacks.