STORY: The seized oil tanker accused of sabotaging an undersea power cable and four internet cables now sits off Finland’s coast.
Finnish investigators said the ship that has been linked to Russia may have caused damage to the cables by dragging its anchor along the seabed, causing a recent outage of the Estlink 2 power cable that connects Finland with Estonia.
The Kremlin said Finland’s seizure of the ship carrying Russian oil was of little concern to it.
But Baltic nations are on high alert.
NATO said on Friday it would boost its presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage.
Estonia launched a naval operation to guard a parallel electricity link, and Sweden’s coastguard said it had increased surveillance of ship traffic.
“Of course, when a ship drags anchors along the seabed a long way, it can’t go unnoticed.”
Estonia’s justice minister Liisa Pakosta told Reuters on Friday that it was time to update centuries-old maritime law to prohibit damage to underwater infrastructure.
“The situation that is now at the Baltic Sea, where the anchors have been dropping several times in a row. And it can’t be by accident. // So the technological developments that we have, we think that it is a good idea to look over also the international law to make these investigations more smoothly.”
Finnish police said they were investigating the Eagle S on suspicion of “aggravated criminal mischief,” and that crew members had been questioned.
Customs officials said they believe the ship is part of a “shadow fleet” of aging tankers being used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
Meanwhile, grid operators said the damaged Estlink 2 power cable might not be back in service before August.