On Thursday, authorities in Finland reported that the cable damage incident on Christmas Day affected more than just the Estlink 2 subsea power cable, and that a tanker has been boarded for purposes of investigation. Out of three cable damage incidents in the Baltic over the past year, this is the first in which the coastal state detained the suspects – and the first time that the response was a tactical operation involving armed forces.
Like the two previous suspected sabotage incidents, Wednesday’s outage affected multiple cables. In addition to Fingrid’s EstLink 2 DC power transmission cable from Finland to Estonia, a set of subsea cables operated by Elisa between Helsinki and Tallinn have been severed. The Cinia submarine cable from Helsinki to Germany has been damaged, as well as the CITIC submarine cable between Helsinki and Tallinn.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency, Traficom, is investigating the technical aspects of the cable breaks. Finnish police are conducting a parallel law enforcement investigation and have identified the suspect vessel as the Cook Islands-flagged tanker Eagle S (as previously observed by open-source intelligence analysts). At this point, the authorities are treating the outage as a case of “aggravated criminal mischief.”
“Due to actions taken by the authorities, Eagle S, a tanker registered in the Cook Islands, entered Finland’s territorial waters. The vessel’s involvement in causing the rupture is under investigation,” the Finnish police said in a statement. “The Helsinki Police Department and the Border Guard have conducted a tactical operation on the vessel. The authorities have taken investigative measures on the vessel, with access there provided by the Finnish Border Guard and the Defense Forces helicopters.”
Customs authorities are also looking into the details of the vessel’s cargo for any irregularities. The ship last called in Ust-Luga, Russia, where tankers typically load Urals crude – a grade restricted by G7 sanctions.
Eagle S is an 18-year-old tanker and changed ownership, name and flag registry. The aging vessel is now tied to operating interests in India and the UAE. Combined with her recent call at a Russian oil port and a poor inspection record, these factors point to her involvement in Russia-linked “dark fleet” operations.
Lloyds List’s Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a specialist in the dark fleet, released Eagle S’ latest independent vetting report. The inspectors noted a slew of serious deficiencies – like a broken inert gas generator, oil leaks in machinery spaces, unmaintained fire doors, and multiple alarms and meters disconnected or out of order. The vessel’s ownership structure is linked to a pool of 26 old, anonymously held Cook Islands-flagged tankers – four of which are under UK or EU sanctions, Bockmann said. For these reasons, the Eagle S is on Lloyds List’s “dark fleet” list, along with seven other tankers managed by the same Indian company.
Finnish authorities have reached the same conclusion. “We assume at this stage that the vessel in question is a member of the shadow fleet,” Finnish customs chief Sami Rakshit told the New York Times on Thursday.
Finland’s prime minister, Petteri Orpo, alluded to Russia’s “shadow fleet” in comments Thursday. “Our main task is to find effective means to stop the shadow fleet,” Orpo said. “The shadow fleet pumps money into Russia’s war fund . . . and it has to be stopped.”
Traficom said that Finnish data connections to nearby states have rerouted to other cables, though data speeds may be temporarily reduced. Cable repair work on the severed communications lines will begin by the end of the week, and the schedule for bringing the cables back online will depend on the Baltic’s winter weather.
“Internet use does not depend on a single cable or even its backup connection. The system as a whole can withstand several simultaneous disruptions,” said Traficom CEO Jarkko Saarimäki.
Top image: Karri Huhtanen / CC BY 2.0
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