Estonia has published images taken in spring showing a Russian civilian vessel on the Baltic decked out with machine guns, a move one analyst called "hostile," Reuters reported.
Surveillance images released by Estonia show fortified machine gun positions and sandbags mounted at external locations on the Marshal Vasilevskiy, a civilian liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel.
An Estonian Police and Border Guard Board (PPA) spokesperson said Monday that the images were captured in spring in an area of the Baltic Sea which falls under Estonia's area of responsibility.
One geopolitics expert, Yoruk Isik of the Bosphorus Observer consultancy, said while armaments and armed personnel are normal for civilian vessels traveling through areas where piracy is a known blight, doing so on the Baltic Sea is "a crazy new step."
Isik called it a "hostile … message to EU and NATO nations that it will actively oppose any attempt to detain or inspect its ships," adding there is "no justification for self defense posture like a machine gun in the Baltic."
Russia has recently increased its military presence in the Gulf of Finland, and this represents a more confrontational stance from Moscow in protecting its civilian fleet, though the ship involved is not seen as part of Russia's "shadow fleet" as it sails under the Russian flag.
An unnamed Baltic security official said it was "hard to say what the Russians are thinking," speculating it may be an overreaction on the part of Moscow now that the Baltic Sea has effectively become a "NATO lake."
Official: Vessel not to be seized as not part of shadow fleet
The same Baltic security official said it was unlikely the Marshal Vasilevskiy will be seized, as it is sailing under the Russian flag and so does not constitute a "shadow fleet" vessel.
With its home port listed as Kaliningrad, the Marshal Vasilevskiy is owned by Gazprom Flot LLC, and its LNG ferrying route between Kaliningrad and St Petersburg takes it along Estonia's coastline. The ship has been sanctioned by the U.K., Canada and Australia while Gazprom Flot LLC itself has been sanctioned by the EU.
Marshal Vasilevskiy was a high-ranking Soviet general during World War II.
In April, Estonian Navy Commander Ivo Värk said Russia is increasing its military presence in the international waters between Estonia and Finland, as its sole access route to the ports around St Petersburg, where a major proportion of its energy exports are loaded; Värk also said at the time that Estonia had stopped attempting to detain "shadow fleet" vessels that do not pose an immediate danger over fears of escalation risks.
A total of nine suspected shadow fleet oil tankers have been seized across Europe since the start of the year, most recently by France last week.
Danish navy commander: Russian ship would likely open fire if approached by NATO vessels
According to an exclusive from defense and security blog The Baltic Flank, around half of the tanker's passengers have backgrounds in the Russian military, the National Guard or the FSB – including one individual who has been registered at an FSB special operations unit. A commander from the Danish Navy said if NATO vessels were to approach the Marshal Vasilevskiy, it would likely open fire on them. Värk meanwhile said the navy and the Estonian Defense Forces would be under obligation to protect any ships which came under fire inside Estonia's territorial waters.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Andrew Whyte
Source: Reuters