<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/19/nato-flotilla-assembles-off-estonia-protect-undersea-cables-baltic-sea>
"A Nato flotilla likened to “the security camera of the Baltic” has assembled
off the coast of Estonia as the military alliance seeks to protect European
undersea cables and pipelines from sabotage.
In a move that ratchets up a struggle with Russia over the seabed that has
remained largely covert until now, a Dutch frigate and naval research ship, as
well as a German minesweeper have all arrived in Tallinn under a thick January
sea fog.
A French minesweeper is expected and more Nato vessels are on the way in
support of a joint effort, called Baltic Sentry, that was agreed in Helsinki
last week.
“The group will grow in the near future, with other ships joining us, so in the
end, we will be about six, seven ships,” said Cmdr Erik Kockx, the Belgian head
of a mine countermeasures taskforce that has been drawn into Baltic Sentry.
“We will in the first case function as the security cameras of the Baltic Sea,
which means that nobody can undertake any actions against critical underwater
infrastructure without us having seen them and being able to react in a proper
way.”
The latest incident which triggered the Nato response took place on Christmas
Day when the Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia, and four data
cables were damaged, according to Finnish authorities, by an oil tanker, the
Eagle S, dragging its anchor along the seabed for 60 miles (100km) until it
snagged on the cables.
The
Eagle S was ordered into Finnish territorial waters, boarded by a special
police squad descending from helicopters, and is now detained off the small
port of Porvoo, east of Helsinki. The ship was found to be missing an anchor
that was later salvaged from the seabed where it appears to have separated from
its chains, and nine of the crew have been banned from leaving Finland while
the inquiry is under way.
The
Eagle S embodies the grey, amorphous nature of the tense situation in
this corner of the Baltic, where it is hard to distinguish between careless
accidents and deliberate acts of hybrid warfare.
The 74,000-tonne Chinese-built tanker has had three previous names, and is now
sailing under the flag of the Cook Islands, owned by a corporation in Dubai but
managed by an Indian company, with a Georgian captain and a Georgian-Indian
crew.
The ship was reportedly on its way from the Russian port of Ust-Luga with
35,000 tonnes of petrol bound for Turkey. Nato and the Finnish authorities
believe it is part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of vessels from around the world
quietly commissioned by Moscow to transport Russian oil in defiance of
sanctions imposed after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The working theory of the Finnish police is that ships and crews that can be
commissioned to bust sanctions can also be hired to carry out sabotage."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
