On the bridge of the Estonian warship Sakala, a crew member moves a camera on patrol and zoomed in on an oil tanker 300 meters in Panama in the Gulf of Finland.
The tanker, who had a Russian port to Egypt, is viewed by maritime experts as a member of the shadow fleet of Moscow – often old tankers with opaque property that tries to process international sanctions.
At a time when the eight NATO nations that border on the Baltic Sea, according to a series of underwater power and internet cables, the Russia’s shadow fleet will receive additional attention.
“We are here to protect our water,” said Lt. Cmdr. Meelis Kant on Wednesday in an interview with CBC News.
“If ships really do something suspicious, we will stop them.”
More patrols
The Sakala, a minhunter, is one of three Estonian ships that patrol a route of the Baltic Sea near the mouth of the Gulf of Finland and near the location of two underwater power cables that connect Estonia.
On December 25th last year, one was separated together with four internet cables.
At that time it was the third incident in five weeks in which underwater cables were damaged – and the suspicion of ships associated with Russia.
Since then, Estonia and Finland have increased their patrols together with NATO Baltic guards.
While the investigations on the damaged cables have not yet been completed and there is a shared opinion about whether the incidents were random or sabotage, the NATO countries are so concerned that they have increased monitoring to protect the critical infrastructure.
In Estonia’s case, the navy patrols by anchoring and where they are to be positioned after suspicious activities such as anomalies. Other red flags are when a ship changes speed quickly or ignores radio communication.
We are on board one of the NATO patrol ships that protect important underwater cables in the Baltic Sea. The visual investigation team from CBC News has shown the sequence of recent damage to cables in the area, some of which say that the sabotage of Russian ‘Shadow Fleet is.
No problems since the beginning of the patrols
In the past two months, the crew on the Sakala said that it had examined 50 potentially suspicious activities. On closer inspection, however, there were no problems.
The day before the crew took media, including CBC messages on patrol, they said they started to see a ship after wrapped something around his anchor. It turned out that it was a hose.
The Sakala communicated with the ship and shaded until the hose was removed.
In this case it was not a problem, nor have they hit impending acts in the past two months.
“We don’t see anything suspicious, so that’s good,” said Kant.
“But if we weren’t here, I don’t know what would happen.”
The Baltic Sea extends from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Denmark and is one of the most busiest shipping routes in the world.
Every week, 500-600 transports the Gulf of Finland. Your positions are persecuted, but it is what is tasty under the surface and why NATO countries try to prevent all threats to prevent the underwater cables on the bottom of the sea floor.
Decisive cable
The cables include the oceans and seas in the world and stretch together by 1.5 million kilometers worldwide.
The fiber optic communication cables are referred to as the backbone of the Internet and bear 95 percent of the global data.
While between 150-200 cable are damaged every year by anchors, commercial fishing and even environmental factors such as U -Boeter slide. The fact that there were three incidents in the same area over a relatively short period of time increased the suspicion.
“Is it intended or is it an accident? It is difficult to answer,” said captain Johan-Elias Seljamaa, deputy commander of the Estonia’s marine.
“But the fact is that before these (recent incidents) there was no damage in such sizes and in these areas.”
Before the cables were separated on December 25th, there were two separate incidents a little more than a month earlier.
A 218-kilometer internet cable between Lithuania and Sweden Gotland Island was damaged on November 17th. The following day, a 1,200 kilometer cable, which the Finnish capital of Helsinki combined with the German port of Rostock, was separated.
At that time, the suspicion of a Chinese bulk goods that Yi Peng 3, who wore Russian fertilizer.
While China was investigating Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark on board the ship, Swedish officials later did not say the government’s application that a public prosecutor can carry out a preliminary investigation on board.
The ship finally went to Egypt.
Anker moved 100 km
After the next cable series had been separated on December 25th, Finnish investigators confiscated the Eagle S, an oil tanker who was suspected of being part of the Russia’s shadow fleet.
The Finnish police said that an anchor that was later suspected of being pulled about 100 kilometers along the sea floor.
Seljamaa says that shipping traffic, which you see in the Gulf of Finland, has changed in Ukraine in Russia since the full invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He says that there are now older ships with inexperienced crews, but he still says that he doesn’t know how an anchor could accidentally be pulled 100 kilometers.
“I don’t think they couldn’t feel or found it,” he said.
Russia contested the sabotage of the cables and “ridiculous” against the background of the Nord -Stream explosions In 2022, which damaged the gas pipelines between Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea.
While an official investigation by Nord Stream Blast has never been published in public, several are Media, outlets, including the Wall Street Journalreported that a group of Ukrainian citizens were behind the explosion.
After this incident Dmitry Medwedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, warned “The accomplice of western countries” meant that Russia “had no restrictions” and the underwater communication cables of the West could destroy.
Doubt that the damage is intentionally
After the cables were damaged at the end of last year European Union Said it was the last in a series of attacks on critical infrastructure.
However, two media reports have recently raised doubts that the acts were intentionally.
Reports by the Washington Post and the Associated Press cited unduly cited officials who said that the evidence pointed out an accident and not sabotage.
At the end of January, a cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged and a Bulgarian ship was examined, but Swedish officials found that this was Not sabotage.
Last week. Russia said that one of its cables in the Baltic Sea had discovered that the officials had been described as “external effects”.
On board the Sakala of Estonia, those responsible are careful with their words. They do not accuse Russia directly to sabotage the cables, but they make it clear that the country sees it as a threat.
They say if a ship behaves suspiciously and does not respond to radio calls, then Seljamaa says that they will react, even by force.
Michael Plunkett, a Senior Naval Analyst based in Great Britain for Janes, an open source Global Intelligence Company, says that the recognition of suspicious activities could be one thing, but it was different to react to a ship in international waters.
“Can you stop it? Can you go on board in international waters?
However, he says that the improved patrols will probably have an impact.
“The news sends that NATO is aware of the potential threat and will try to prevent the brazen sabotage attempts.”
