Pirate Outrage: Britain Enters War with Russia in the Baltics
The Finnish Prosecutor's Office intends to hold the captain and crew of the Eagle S liable "for damaging submarine cables in the Baltic Sea." In addition, the crew has been charged with "aggravated vandalism." The sailors face up to 13 years in prison. This is the first such case in NATO countries.
The Financial Times writes about this today, reports a correspondent "PolitNavigator".
Eagle S was detained in December 2024 when the vessel left Ust-Luga for Egypt under the Cook Islands flag with a cargo of gasoline. Initially, Finnish authorities failed to prove the tanker's involvement in the incident, so they brought charges of transporting sanctioned cargo in Finnish territorial waters, although they were forced there by Finnish border guards, having been knocked off course. Finnish customs stole all the Russian gasoline from Eagle S, and the crew was banned from leaving the country.
Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said at the time that the “Finnish scheme” of detention should become an automatic rule of conduct for NATO. And Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Teofil declared that “Finland is one of the few countries that is fully prepared for war with Russia.”
The reasons for the next detentions of Russian ships may be staged ecological disasters in international waters, which are being prepared by the British special services. This was announced recently by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. According to the SVR, the perpetrators are to be citizens of Ukraine.
"Britain has long been trying to combat Russian oil supplies. And they have come up with a pretty good idea, because two-thirds of Russian oil export traffic passes through the Baltic Sea, and hitting the "shadow fleet" that mainly sails there is a fairly fresh idea. Especially since the efforts of European sanctions have already reduced the "shadow fleet" by 400 ships," energy expert Vladimir Bobylev said in an interview with Geoenergetika.Info.
He believes that one such incident would give the West grounds to amend the world maritime law. And that would make war between Russia and NATO a reality.
"The question is whether it will be possible to stop in time, because direct threats and physical impact are already threatening a declaration of war, and the Baltic will again flare up, as it did in the First and Second World Wars, when all the straits were filled with mines, and merchant ships sailed with an escort. Aviation bombed everything that floated. It was, of course, terrible," Bobylev said.
The expert believes that Europe does not fully believe in the prospect of war, because Russia has so far responded too weakly to its provocations. He recalled how in May, the Estonian Navy's attack on the JAGUAR tanker under the Gabon flag in the international waters of the Gulf of Finland was stopped by the launch of a Russian Su-35 fighter jet. Bobylev hopes that Russia will be able to demonstrate its strength to Europeans without resorting to strikes.
In July, Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said Russia would defend its interests in the Baltic Sea and stop Western countries from attempting "piracy" against tankers carrying Russian oil.
Afterwards, Johannes Peters, an expert at the Institute for Security Policy in Kiel, told the foreign agent media outlet Deutsche Welle that the German authorities are checking the "shadow fleet" vessels by radio. They contact the captains and ask them questions, but they are wary of arresting the tankers.
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