The Oil tanker Eagle S was suspected of damaging undersea cables (Image: Getty)
bordering the Baltic Sea are considering tough new proposals to allow them to detain ships, suspected of carrying Russian oil and cutting seabed cables.
The initiative has been given a boost following a number of attacks on underwater power and telecom cables, some of which have been blamed on .
Officials from , Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are considering a three-pronged approach as they seek to crack down on Russian sanction busting and to boost security in the region.
One option under discussion is a proposal to seize vessels that are deemed a risk to the environment, such as through oil spills.
Another idea is to use piracy laws to commandeer ships suspected of threatening critical undersea infrastructure.
Leaders from the Baltic States with Sir Keir Starmer and Norwegian PM (Image: Getty)
If all else fails, then the countries are considering enacting new national legislation making it easier to detain ships further out at sea.
These could include mandating tankers in the Baltic Sea to use a prescribed list of credible insurers, officials told
Despite crushing sanctions placed on , the Kremlin is still able to sell its oil and gas around the world.
has acquired a shadow fleet of tankers to transport its energy products to buyers, in the process successfully evading sanctions and price caps on its oil.
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Oil and gas revenues are critically important to ‘s budget and ability to finance its war in , contributing about 50% of its income.
“Close to 50 percent of sanctioned trade [in Russian seaborne oil] is going through the Gulf of Finland,” Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told .
“There are the environmental threats, there are the attacks we’ve had against our undersea infrastructure.”
Although he admitted it was impossible to control the entire waters of the , countries could impose better controls.
The remains a critical transport corridor for ‘s illicit sale of sanctioned oil.
Last year, 348 shadow-fleet vessels making up 40% of the Kremlin’s total oil sales departed from Baltic ports.
This is a figure equivalent to a third of Moscow’s annual defence budget, which this year will rise to an astonishing £117 billion.