Finland probes Russia-linked oil tanker over undersea outage

Authorities in Finland said Thursday they were investigating an oil tanker which had taken off from Russia in connection with damage to the Estlink 2 power transmission cable.

The line which carries electricity from Finland to Estonia under the Baltic Sea was ruptured on Christmas Day. This came just over a month after telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte later offered assistance in investigations by either NATO member. 

"Spoke with [Estonian Prime Minister] Kristen Michal about reported possible sabotage of Baltic cables," Rutte said online. "NATO stands in solidarity with Allies and condemns any attacks on critical infrastructure. We are following the investigations by Estonia and Finland, and we stand ready to provide further support." 

What is known about the ship

The vessel, the Eagle S, is a tanker registered in the Cook Islands and had sailed from a Russian port, according to reports. It was grounded by Finnish authorities on Thursday as part of the probe.

The Finnish Broadcasting Corporation YLE cited global ship tracking service MarineTraffic with information that the vessel in question appeared to have slowed down while passing over the area of the cable when it went offline.

The Reuters news agency also cited MarineTraffic data suggesting the power outage occurred at the same time the Eagle S Panamax oil tanker crossed the Estlink 2 electricity cable.

YLE reported that the oil tanker was, according to MarineTraffic, heading from St Petersburg to Egypt.

It went on to cite British publication Lloyd's List with information that the Eagle S was part of Russia's so-called shadow fleet. 

"The assumption at the moment is that it is a shadow fleet vessel and the cargo was unleaded petrol loaded in a Russian port," said Sami Rakshit, the head of Finnish customs.

Finnish police meanwhile believed the damage to the cables was caused by the anchor of the ship, according to YLE, citing police preliminary reports.

What is Russia's so-called shadow fleet?

Russia has been circumventing Western sanctions on its oil industry with a so-called shadow fleet of unregistered oil tankers.

"We monitored the situation closely yesterday" with Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on X.

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

Authorities in the region have been on high alert for potential acts of sabotage following a string of outages of power cables, gas pipelines and telecom links in the Baltic Sea although underwater cables are also subject to technical malfunctions and outages caused by accidents. 

kb/rmt (AFP, Reuters, AP)