Russian and Chinese marine sabotage has reached new heights in the Baltic, as well as in the South China Sea. The difference is that, in the Baltic, such sabotage is more disruptive but is also easier to counteract; the area is far smaller than the South China Sea, and is surrounded by European Union countries.
A recent incident involving a Russian “dark-fleet” tanker, which dragged its anchor in order to break an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia, finally produced an appropriate reaction from the victims of this sabotage. The Finnish Navy boarded and searched the ship so quickly that the crew had no time to dispose of the evidence of what they were doing. A multitude of surveillance equipment was found that had no business being on such a vessel unless it was used for spying – the ship’s anchor was also missing, which was pretty obvious evidence of their crime. It was also interesting to note that the spying equipment was so sophisticated that the chances of it being used by the Georgian/Indian crew was minimal – it was a Russian spy ship being used to destroy undersea cables.
Instead of just receiving a warning, or acting as observers to a ridiculous Russian internal inspection as has happened in the past, the Finnish Navy sailed the ship into a Finnish port and impounded it for investigation. A few days later, the Finnish Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the dragging track along the seabed was “dozens of kilometers long”, effectively removing all doubt as to what the ship was up to. There have been two similar incidents in recent months involving Chinese ships – the Chinese authorities claimed these two incidents were accidents…of course.
It is tempting to suggest that the Baltic/EU navies just arrest the crews of these ships, remove them from the ship, and scuttle it, but that would create an environmental problem, particularly if the vessel in question was a tanker as it was in the case described above. A more subtle, but equqlly firm, approach will be necessary in future cases, like the Finnish navy’s response.
It has just been announced that Nato has launched a new mission to increase the surveillance of ships in the Baltic Sea after critical undersea cables were damaged or severed last year. Nato chief Mark Rutte said the mission, dubbed “Baltic Sentry”, would involve more patrol aircraft, warships and drones. A picture of one such patrol vessel is above.
His announcement was made at a summit in Helsinki attended by all Nato countries surrounding the Baltic Sea – Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.
While Russia was not directly singled out as a culprit in the cable damage, Rutte said Nato would step up its monitoring of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” – ships without clear ownership – that are used to carry embargoed oil products. “There is reason for grave concern” over infrastructure damage, Rutte said. He added that Nato would respond to such accidents robustly, with more boarding of suspect vessels and, if necessary, their seizure.
Undersea infrastructure is essential not only for electricity supply but also because more than 95% of internet traffic is secured via undersea cables, Rutte said, adding that “1.3 million kilometres (800,000 miles) of cables guarantee an estimated 10 trillion-dollar worth of financial transactions every day”.
Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in December that damage to submarine infrastructure had become “so frequent” that it cast doubt on the idea the damage could be considered “accidental” or “merely poor seamanship”. Tsahkna did not accuse Russia directly. Neither did Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who on Sunday said that while Sweden was not jumping to conclusions or “accusing anyone of sabotage without very strong reasons”, it was also “not naive”. “The security situation and the fact that strange things happen time and time again in the Baltic Sea also lead us to believe that hostile intent cannot be ruled out. There is little evidence that a ship would accidentally and without noticing it… without understanding that it could cause damage,” he said.
It’s good to see that Europe is finally waking up to Putin’s threats and treating them with force and determination – the only way to treat a bully under any circumstances. Next, the same strong response needs to be applied to the South China Sea and the Straits of Taiwan.
