Finland Bans Travel for Ninth Crewmember From Suspected Sabotage Vessel
Finnish police have issued a travel ban to a ninth member of the crew of the tanker Eagle S, which is suspected of cutting multiple subsea power and communications cables in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day.
On Dec. 25, Fingrid's EstLink 2 power transmission cable and four subsea telecom cables suddenly shut down. The outages corresponded to the position of the tanker Eagle S, an LR1 associated with the Russian-controlled "shadow fleet." In response, Finland dispatched a police tactical team in a helicopter and asked Eagle S to divert into Finnish territorial waters. The crew agreed to comply, and the tanker has been detained ever since. In addition to the police detention order, eight crewmembers were banned from leaving the country, the ship's cargo was arrested, and the vessel was given an administrative detention for multiple "serious" safety deficiencies.
On Monday, Finland's National Bureau of Investigation announced that investigators have added a ninth crewmember to the list of criminal suspects connected to the cable damage incident. All nine face possible charges of aggravated vandalism and aggravated interference with telecommunications, and have been served with a travel ban to ensure that they stay within reach during the investigation.
Chief Criminal Inspector Risto Lohi told YLE on Monday that the investigation is now focused on determining whether there was intent to cause the damage. The police continue to question the crew, with a focus on the deck department.
"The investigation is now continuing with crew interviews, underwater investigation and technical investigation. At this stage, the focus is shifting to analyzing the material already collected," he said.
Investigators confirmed Monday that they believe that the tanker could have continued onward to damage additional subsea infrastructure if it had not been stopped. Possible further targets could have included the Estlink 1 subsea cable - the backup for the Estlink 2 - and the Balticconnector gas pipeline. All of these subsea links are important for energy security in the Baltic states, which are currently attempting to wean their grids off of reliance on Russian electrical power.
"There would have been an almost immediate danger that other cables or pipes related to our critical underwater infrastructure could have been damaged," Lohi told Reuters.
After three subsea cable damage incidents in little more than a year, NATO has agreed to take action to protect its members, including its two newest states. Sweden - which just joined NATO last year, following Finland - is now planning to contribute three naval vessels for subsea security operations in the Baltic. The warships will be under NATO control and will deploy to monitor traffic and subsea cable integrity.
The suspected anchor-drag sabotage incidents have affected multiple NATO members. Sweden believes that an earlier cable incident involving the Chinese bulker Yi Peng 3 in Swedish waters may have narrowly missed a subsea power link. "There are traces of an anchor, probably from Yi Peng 3, also in connection with NordBalt-cable, that is, the connection between Sweden and Lithuania. This obviously illustrates the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in," Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told media on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Finland will host the Baltic Sea NATO Allies Summit in Helsinki, where subsea security will be high on the agenda.