Finland Finds Drag Marks Near Broken Undersea Cable. Russia's 'Shadow Fleet' Suspected (msn.com)
- Reference: 0175785437
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/29/2055221/finland-finds-drag-marks-near-broken-undersea-cable-russias-shadow-fleet-suspected
- Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/has-russias-shadow-fleet-built-to-evade-sanctions-added-sabotage-to-its-list/ar-AA1wBCTW
> Finnish police said on Sunday they had found tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometres along the bottom of the Baltic Sea where a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking a power line and four telecoms cables with its anchor... A break in the 658 megawatt (MW) Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia occurred at midday on Wednesday, leaving only the 358 MW Estlink 1 linking the two countries, grid operators said. They said Estlink 2 might not be back in service before August.
In an interesting twist, the New York Times reports that the ship "bears [2]all the hallmarks of vessels belonging to Russia's shadow fleet , officials said, and had embarked from a Russian port shortly before the cables were cut."
> If confirmed, it would be the first known instance of a shadow fleet vessel being used to intentionally sabotage critical infrastructure in Europe — and, officials and experts said, a clear escalation by Russia in its conflict with the West... NATO's general secretary, Mark Rutte, responding to requests from the leaders of Finland and Estonia, both member nations, said the Atlantic alliance would "enhance" its military presence in the Baltic Sea...
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> Since Russia began assembling its fleet, the number of shadow vessels traversing the oceans has grown by hundreds and now makes up 17 percent of the total global oil tanker fleet... Nearly 70 percent of Russia's oil is being transported by shadow tankers, according to an analysis [3]published in October by the Kyiv School of Economics Institute, a research organization based in Ukraine... The authorities in Finland are still investigating whether the "Eagle S" engaged in a criminal act. But the sheer size of the shadow fleet might have made using some of these vessels for sabotage irresistible to Russia, [said Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who has researched and written about shadow fleets]...
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> While it's still not certain that this week's cable cutting was done intentionally, the Baltic Sea, for a number of reasons, is an ideal arena to carry out sabotage operations. It is relatively shallow and is crisscrossed with essential undersea cables and pipelines that provide energy, as well as internet and phone services, to a number of European countries that are NATO members. Russia has relatively unfettered access to the sea from several ports, and its commercial vessels, protected by international maritime law, can move around international waters largely unmolested... The suspicions that Russia was using shadow vessels for more than just escaping sanctions existed before this week's cable cutting. Last April, the head of Sweden's Navy told a local news outlet that there was evidence such ships were being used to conduct signals intelligence on behalf of Russia and that some fishing vessels had been spotted with antennas and masts not normally seen on commercial vessels. Since the war began, there has also been an uptick in suspicious episodes resulting in damage to critical undersea infrastructure...
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> Hours after Finland's energy grid operator alerted the police that an undersea power cable was damaged on Wednesday, Finnish officers descended by helicopter to the ship's deck and took over the bridge, preventing the vessel from sailing farther. By Friday, it remained at anchor in the Gulf of Finland, guarded by a Finnish Defense Forces missile boat and a Border Guard patrol vessel.
The cable incident happened just weeks after the EU issued new sanctions targetting Russia's shadow fleet, [4]Euronews reports . "A handful of Chinese companies suspected of enabling Russia's production of drones are also blacklisted as part of the agreement, a diplomat told Euronews."
> The "shadow fleet" has been accused of deceptive practices, including transmitting falsified data and turning off their transporters to become invisible to satellite systems, and conducting multiple ship-to-ship transfers to conceal the origin of the oil barrels...
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/finland-finds-drag-marks-on-baltic-seabed-after-cable-damage/ar-AA1wFau5
[2] https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/has-russias-shadow-fleet-built-to-evade-sanctions-added-sabotage-to-its-list/ar-AA1wBCTW
[3] https://kse.ua/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Shadow_free_zones_October_2024_final.pdf
[4] https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/12/11/eu-slaps-new-sanctions-on-russia-targeting-shadow-fleet-of-oil-tankers
we will grow stronger (Score:4, Insightful)
We will grow much stronger from the sabotages.
What we do is we practice low energy usage in our homes, we learn to depend less on electricity, oil and gas. And we learn to install solar, batteries, and thus reduce our footprint anyway, and as a bonus we become less dependent on external partners.
What happened to "the sun is shining somewhere"? (Score:2)
The usual response to "solar panels and wind don't work when it's cloudy and calm" is that the sun is shining or it's windy somewhere else.
And this is true . But that means we need the power cables to get the power from somewhere else to here .
Otherwise, we need a lot more solar and batteries. Which is more expensive than just being able to transfer power from one part of Europe to the other via transmission lines.
Impound it (Score:5, Interesting)
The ship is already trying to evade sanctions, and now it's undertaken sabotage. Impound it, use its oil for your own purposes, and put the captain and crew in jail. Rinse and repeat if this keeps happening.
Let Russia whine. The more ships they lose the less money they get to fund their war. They're already screaming about sanctions strangling them and Ukraine destroying their oil refineries, make them scream louder.
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Your so called sanctions stop at the 12 nautical mile distance from your shores. Your government is not the world government and your laws are not the world laws.
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There is no way for a ship leaving a Russian port on the Baltic to reach the Atlantic without going through the national waters of Sweden or Denmark. That is, they would definitely be within 12 nautical miles of either nation. Smaller ships can traverse the Keil Canal, but that lies entirely within Germany. All three nations are part of NATO.
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I'd ask that question a little differently...
Is Russia at war with the West now?
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It was asked with a Russian accent.
Re: Are the West at war with Russia now ? (Score:2)
Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore, Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. -Orwell
Read your history.
Re: Are the West at war with Russia now ? (Score:1)
Bad analogy. If the US invaded Cuba on some made-up pretext and the US and Russia had a treaty to guarantee Cubaâ(TM)s security, and then Russia gave Cuba said missiles, this would be more similar to Ukraine.
Re: (Score:2)
Um. Hmm. Well
Look, I don’t really see eye to eye with the OP
but your comment about us invading Cuba? Um, yeah, buddy, we sorta did. . . . And we also used a bunch of made-up bs to mess with them in all sorts of other ways as well. You should read up on the cuban missile crisis.
I’m no fan of the Cuban government, and I have no idea what Fidel Castro was thinking when he picked s fight with Uncle Sam. It’s like, buddy, you’re a rookie lightweight. Why on earth did you ste
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> Americans are firing missiles into Russia striking Russian civilian targets.
Where do you get your news from?
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Now? Where ya been the last 75 years?
Be easier to transfer the oil barrels... (Score:2)
if they left the transporters on.
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Exactly. Nothing for Russia to gain from this. It's very likely Finland (on behalf of NATO) made that up to have an excuse to put more pressure on Russia
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> Looks like a false flag attack. Russia has absolutely nothing to gain from this. However, if it gives the US an excuse to strikeæ. Well, it would be just another example of how people get dragged in to war with us.
You really didn't think this through at all did you? Strategic demonstration of their ability to disrupt critical infrastructure between NATO and EU countries? Inflicting heavy economic consequences by disrupting their adversaries financial transactions? Testing EU and NATO response? Retaliation for sanctions? In case you haven't noticed. the US doesn't need an excuse to strike Russia. They are already engaged in war with Russia through Ukraine as a proxy.
Maybe we're thinking of countermeasures wrong (Score:2)
When we think about how to prevent this, people seem to think about altering / armoring the cables themselves. But what if, instead of making expensive alterations directly to the cables, we turned this around? I'm thinking about something lower-tech (like a heavy chain or thick metal cable), fixed to the seabed - with the specific intent of snagging and holding dragged boat anchors.
You wouldn't want to do this in a harbor where ships actually are expected to anchor - but different countermeasures could be
Finland is fully prepped for war (Score:4, Interesting)
Finland is fully prepped for war, and getting more ready every day. They are watching the goings on in Ukraine with great interest, stockpiling materials of war, training, practicing. I am pretty sure these preparations will deter Russia from invading Finland (if they were thinking about doing it in the first place).
But if they do invade, the Finns will be punching way above their weight.
Russia will dig its own grave (Score:5, Insightful)
If you treat your neighbors like this, they learn not to trade with you and they learn not to trust you. In the same way that Europe is now waking up and has stopped purchasing Russian oil or is in the process of halting their purchases, these efforts only serve to force Europe to alienate Russia, which is already struggling economically.
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While I agree with you, I wanted to add that the problem with this plan is the Russian elite does not care if Russia is poor, as long as they can be rich. They follow Paradise Lost "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven". Any sanctions are essentially an ethical obligation for Europeans/Americans, but won't bring the Russian leadership to change their plans an inch.
The rest of the population is living as poor as ever, and has nothing to lose. To the opposite, the wars finally brings them back their l
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> ... the Russian elite does not care if Russia is poor, as long as they can be rich.
I'm not sure that's limited to Russia and their elite.
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he Russian elite does not care if Russia is poor, as long as they can be rich.
The problem is, those elite are now worried rebuilding those oil refineries, chemical plants, optics, and manufacturing plants will have to be paid out of their pockets. There are several oil refineries which are out of commision and need millions of dollars of repairs. This is on top of the loss of revenue since they're not working. Banking services are grinding to a halt because outside banks won't do business with them for f
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There’s no problem with the plan. Russia’s economy is hosed. It doesn’t matter if they win or lose in Ukraine. And the Russian elites will certainly stay rich, but the country will be so depopulated and economically poor that they’ll be unable to threaten their neighbors for a full century.
As far as the Russian people go? Well, the interesting thing about dictatorships this century is that they’re perfectly happy to let the unhappy people leave. Last century, a lot of dictat
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They already don't trust each other. Finland and Sweden joined NATO. Of course there's now increased animosity.
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So Finland asked for sabotage because they joined NATO?
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> So Finland asked for sabotage because they joined NATO?
I think Putin would say "yes."
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With oil it doesn't matter all that much because most countries can't magically increase production to shut out another country. What happens is that Europe buys from someone else (at a higher price) and Russia sells (at a lower price) to whoever was previously buying the now unavailable oil that European countries have bought instead. European countries have a more robust economy to absorb that, but Russia has a population more than used to absorbing stupid economic decisions.
Russia dug its grave decade