Russian tanker pulled ashore for alleged sabotage in Baltic Sea 'full of spy equipment'

A Russian-linked tanker suspected of severing cables in the Baltic Sea has been towed into port as it was reportedly loaded with “spy equipment”.

Finnish authorities have boarded the Eagle S at sea after suspecting the vessel of destroying undersea power and internet cables on Christmas Day.

The Cook Islands-registered vessel was carrying Russian oil when it reportedly slowed and pulled its anchor out to sea to damage the Estlink 2 undersea cablegiving power to Estonia.

The Finnish crew boarded the Eagle S on Thursday and boarded the vessel into Finnish waters, a coast official said.

The ship is said to have been released with special transmission and reception equipment that monitors all ship operations, according to the shipping magazine Lloyd's List citing a source directly involved in the ship.

“They were monitoring all Nato warships and aircraft,” the source said, adding: “They had all the information on them. They were just matching their frequencies.”

The source, who did not want to be identified, said the ship was full of “large carry-on suitcases” and “many laptops” with Turkish and Russian language keyboards on the bridge.

Those who were on the ship would have known about these espionage actions but “they were threatened with their lives, so everyone kept quiet”, said a source who told this newspaper.

They added that the Eagle S dropped “sensor-type equipment” in the English Channel and the recording equipment was loaded for analysis when it arrived in Russia. The source did not know if the ship still had equipment when the coast guard boarded.

The Helsinki Police Department, in a statement on Saturday, said: “The police began an operation to remove the ship Eagle S from the Gulf of Finland to Svartbeck, which is a base near the port of Kilpilahti.

This would be a better place to conduct an investigation, he added.

Baltic Sea nations have been on high alert after disruptions to power lines, telephone links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Last month, two communication lines were cut in Sweden's Baltic region.

Mark Rutte, the secretary general of Nato, said on Friday it would increase its presence in the region, while Estonia said it had sent a navy to monitor the Estlink 1 undersea cable, which is still operational.

Finland's transport ministry believes the ship is part of a “shadow fleet” of aging tankers used to evade sanctions on Russian oil sales.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in any Baltic infrastructure incidents and said the seizure of the Finnish ship was of little concern.

The damage to Estlink 2 follows the cutting of the Arelion data cable between the Swedish island Gotland and Lithuania on Nov 17 and the cutting of the C-Lion 1 cable between Helsinki, Finland, and the port of Rostock in Germany.

The Yi Peng 3, a Chinese ship, was suspected of damaging the cables by dragging its anchor.

Germany has described the recent alleged sabotage as a “wake-up call” for new EU sanctions against Russian “shadow ships”.

“Almost every month, ships damage major submarine cables in the Baltic Sea,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a statement sent to the Funke media group.

Ms Baerbock added: “Workers leave anchors in the water, drag them for miles offshore for no good reason, and then lose them as they drag.”

Aleksander Stepanov, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reacted to the cable cut by suggesting that the Russian navy could escort ships in the Gulf of Finland to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Mr Stepanov told TASS, Russia's state-run news agency: “There is probably only one way out of this: we will start escorting our friendly and own ships and ships.” But even that does not guarantee that we will avoid being provoked by unreasonable and aggressive naval officers.”

He said that Helsinki had received orders from Washington to carry out strikes against Russian merchant ships with the aim of increasing Nato's control of the sea area.

Jim O'Brien, US assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs, said the US was “deeply concerned” about the damage to the submarine cables, and said “those responsible must be held accountable”.

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