Latest news with #shadow fleet
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Finland charges tanker crew members with sabotage of undersea cables
Finnish authorities have filed charges against members of the crew of an oil tanker suspected of damaging five undersea cables by dragging its anchor between Finland and Estonia. Finland's deputy prosecutor general's office said on Monday it had filed charges of aggravated sabotage and aggravated interference with telecommunications against the captain and first and second officers of the Eagle S. The Cook Islands-registered tanker is understood to be part of Russia's 'shadow fleet' – comprising vessels that sail under foreign flags to evade sanctions. The ship was carrying oil from Ust-Luga in Russia across the Gulf of Finland when, prosecutors allege, it dragged its anchor along the seabed for about 90km (56 miles) in December 2024. The incident was one of several suspected hybrid attacks on telecommunications services in the Nordic region at the end of last year, putting leaders on high alert and prompting accusations of infrastructure sabotage against Russia. Finnish authorities seized the Eagle S on 26 December last year when the border guard's emergency response team and police landed on the ship in the early hours of the morning. The seizure was lifted in February and the ship left Finland the following month. Damage to the cables had cost their owners, Cinia and Elisa, 'at least €60m in repair costs alone', the office of the deputy prosecutor general, Jukka Rappe, said in a statement. It added: 'The rupture of the extremely high-capacity electricity transmission and telecommunications cables is also suspected of having caused a serious danger to energy supply and telecommunications in Finland, although services have been secured by using alternative connections.' The defendants, it said, had denied any wrongdoing in the preliminary investigation. They believed that Finland 'does not have jurisdiction in the matter because the cable damage sites are outside Finnish territorial waters', the statement said. A lawyer for the United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, the owner of the Eagle S, has said previously that Helsinki lacked jurisdiction to intervene. Rappe disagreed, saying: 'The characteristics of the crimes,ie the dangers caused, occurred within the borders of Finland, even though the measures themselves were taken outside Finland.' He told the Guardian that the question of jurisdiction was 'one of the critical questions', but that 'the effects of the crime materialised here in Finland. That brings it to the jurisdiction of Finland, I think. But of course it is up to [the] district court to decide whether Finland has jurisdiction or not.' He said he hoped the trial would have an impact on investigations into other alleged cable-cutting incidents in the region over the last two years. Because of its geographical positioning, between Russia and the Baltic, Finland is particularly vulnerable. 'Finland is like an island because of the Baltic sea. All of our connections go via undersea cables to Sweden, Estonia and central Europe,' said Rappe. The indictment has been filed with the Helsinki district court, which will decide on a date for the hearing. The state prosecutor, special prosecutor and regional prosecutor have been assigned to prosecute the charges in court. The three suspects have been under a travel ban in Finland since the start of the investigation. Cinia and Elisa declined to comment.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Finland Charges Ship's Crew Members in Slashing of Undersea Cables
The Finnish authorities said on Monday that they have charged the captain and two other crew members of an oil tanker on suspicion of sabotage in relation to the cutting of vital undersea cables. The aging tanker, the Eagle S, was seized in late December by the Finnish authorities. They said at the time that the ship might belong to Russia's so-called 'shadow fleet,' a group of older tankers that covertly transport Russian crude oil around the world, raising concerns about a potential covert campaign to sabotage European infrastructure. The tanker was released in March and escorted back into international waters, but Finnish officials said at the time that eight crew members remained under investigation on suspicion of criminal offenses. On Monday, Finland's National Prosecution Authority said in a statement that the ship's captain, as well as the first and second officers, had been charged with 'aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications' in relation to the episode. The statement did not identify the three crew members, saying only that they had denied the accusations — which according to the authority appeared to involve dragging the ship's anchor on the seabed for miles and severing five cables in the Gulf of Finland. The severing of the cables last December came on the heels of a series of similar incidents. Western officials have long feared that Moscow's so-called shadow fleet could be used to circumvent sanctions imposed over the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the episodes of severed cables raised fears that it might also be used for sabotage. Russia, which has denied involvement in sabotage, had condemned the seizure of the Eagle S. The Finnish authorities on Monday declined to say if they still believed the Eagle S — which is registered in the Cook Islands and had been sailing from Russia to Egypt when it was detained — might belong to Russia's shadow fleet. In its statement, the National Prosecution Authority said the episode was suspected to have caused a 'serious risk to energy supply and telecommunications in Finland,' and had saddled the owners of the cables with at least 60 million euros (about $70 million) in repair costs.
Times of Oman
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Times of Oman
UK intelligence agencies plan to involve NATO allies to raid 'shadow fleet': Russia claims
Moscow: The UK's intelligence agencies are planning to enlist NATO allies in a large-scale operation targeting the "shadow fleet," which could lead to an environmental disaster in international waters, the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a statement obtained by TASS. As per the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this plan provides for a major act of sabotage to force Washington into sanctioning buyers of Russian energy. In a post on X, the Russian MFA said, "Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service: UK intelligence agencies plan to involve NATO allies to launch a massive raid on the 'shadow fleet'. This plan provides for a major act of sabotage to force Washington into sanctioning buyers of Russian energy." "British secret services are planning ecological disaster in international waters. The press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation informs that, according to the information coming to the SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service), the British secret services are planning to involve NATO allies in a massive roundup for the 'shadow fleet'," the statement said. According to the UK's plan, the impetus for such a campaign should be provided by "a resonant incident involving one or more tankers." "The plan involves organizing a major act of sabotage the losses of which would allow the transportation of Russian oil to be declared a threat to all international shipping. This would untie Western countries' hands in choosing methods of counteraction," the document said, as quoted by Tass. According to the SVR, the British are working on "two potential casus belli." "The first scenario implicates setting up an 'unwanted' tanker accident in one of bottlenecks of sea communications (for example, in straits). As it is believed in London, oil spills and fairway blocking would provide NATO countries with 'sufficient' grounds for establishing a precedent of 'extraordinary' vessel inspection under the guise of maritime safety and environmental regulations compliance," the statement noted. The SVR pointed out that the timing of the UK attack is intended to be chosen so as to use the media effect from it to put pressure on the administration of US President Donald Trump, as per Tass. "The aim is to force Washington, in defiance of its national interests, to impose the most severe secondary sanctions against Russian energy resources buyers, making them seen as 'indirect culprits of the tragedy'," the statement said, as per Tass.
