A Finnish patrol vessel. The coast guard has seized an oil tanker and is interviewing the crew. Photo: Finnish Border Guard
NATO is to boost its military presence in the Baltic Sea to protect undersea cables after Finland seized a ship suspected of damaging cables linking Finland and Estonia on December 25.
A NATO statement said members have met in Brussels to discuss improving security for underseas cables.
The damage done to the cables is being investigated by Finnish authorities who have reportedly found drag marks on the ocean floor near the cables.
To maintain vigilance and hopefully deter future incidents, NATO says it will boost its military presence in the Baltic Sea.
The alliance is saying it is also considering other measures with the support of its Maritime Centre for Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure that was created in May in the United Kingdom.
Finnish authorities said on Saturday they are moving an impounded tanker carrying Russian oil closer to port after boarding the vessel on suspicion it damaged an undersea power line and four telecom cables.
The Cook Islands-registered ship, identified by authorities as the Eagle S, was boarded by a Finnish border guard crew that took control and sailed it to Finnish waters, a coast guard official said.
Finnish police believe the Eagle S may have damaged the undersea cables by dragging its anchor along the seabed.
“The police begin an operation to transfer the Eagle S tanker from the Gulf of Finland to Svartbeck, an inner anchorage near the port of Kilpilahti,” the Helsinki police department said in a statement.
This would be a better place to carry out investigations, it added.
Finland’s customs service believes the ship is part of a “shadow fleet” of ageing tankers being used to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.
Russia has said the seizure of the ship was of little concern to it.
Helsinki police say underwater investigations in the Gulf of Finland have now resumed after bad weather forced them to be suspended.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says the Eagle S is anchored near the Kilpilahti oil harbour in Porvoo as the crew are questioned; seven of the crew have been banned from travelling.
“The investigation is progressing all the time … it is possible that the number of persons subject to a travel ban will still change,” said Detective Chief Inspector Elina Katajamäki of the NBI.
