Finnish law enforcement authorities said Thursday that they are investigating an oil tanker that allegedly sailed from a Russian port to “sabotage” a power cable linking the Nordic country with nearby Estonia.
The Estlink 2 submarine cable, which carries electricity from Finland to Estonia, was disconnected from the grid on Wednesday, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation said a probe for “aggravated sabotage” had been opened into the oil tanker Eagle S, which flies under the flag of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.
“The assumption at the moment is that it is a shadow fleet vessel and the cargo was unleaded petrol loaded in a Russian port,” a Finnish customs official said, referring to ships that transport embargoed Russian crude and oil products.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said his government was monitoring the situation closely, noting that “risks posed by Russia’s shadow fleet vessels must be averted.”
The Eagle S is bound for Port Said in Egypt and is still located in the Gulf of Finland, according to the Marine Traffic website.
Finnish law enforcement authorities, who carried out a search of the tanker and spoke with its crew, said they suspect the vessel’s anchor may have damaged the Estlink 2 submarine cable.
“Our patrol vessel traveled to the area and could determine visually that the vessel’s anchor was missing,” Markku Hassinen of the Finnish Border Guard said at a news conference. “So there is a clear reason to suspect something strange happened.”
