Finland Suspects a Ship From the Russian Shadow Fleet of a New Cable Damage in the Baltic Sea. IStories Found Its Captain
The tanker was near the Estlink 2 power cable when it failed
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Finnish authorities have detained the tanker Eagle S, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga, and launched an investigation after the Estlink 2 electric cable between Finland and Estonia was damaged on December 25. Yle media writes about it with reference to the statement of the representative of the Finnish police.
The Estlink damage was reported to Finnish authorities on the afternoon of December 25. On the night of December 26, the police boarded the tanker, which was in Finnish territorial waters.
OSINT specialist Auonsson noticed that the tanker had slowed down by 25% a few minutes before crossing the cable, after which it came to an almost complete stop at the cable's location. After several maneuvers, the vessel picked up speed and continued on its way — taking less than 10 minutes to stop, according to MarineTraffic.
The vessel left Ust-Luga on Dec. 25 at 3:25 a.m. local time and was headed for the port of Aliaga in western Turkey, according to Russian port data reviewed by IStories. The destination was listed as Port Said in Egypt, according to the MarineTraffic service. The captain of the Eagle S was Davit Vadatchkoria, IStories found out. Earlier, a 39-year-old citizen of Georgia posted a profile with the same name on the CrewData sailor search service.
Vadatchkoria boarded the ship on October 15 in the Danish port of Skagen along with five other new crew members, the documents show. On December 14, four more people joined the tanker’s crew in Ust-Luga.
According to port data, the Eagle S left the Indian port of Kandla and stopped in the Danish port of Skagen on October 15 before entering Ust-Luga on October 26.
The tanker stood there for almost two months until it left on December 20 for St. Petersburg, where it spent less than 24 hours between December 22 and 23. The vessel returned to Ust-Luga on December 23 and left the Russian port 13 hours later.
A Finnish customs official said the tanker likely belongs to a shadow Russian fleet that provides oil exports from Russia to circumvent Western sanctions. According to Finnish authorities, the Eagle S was carrying unleaded gasoline shipped at a Russian port.
According to the Finnish investigation, the Estlink 2 cable was damaged by the vessel’s anchor. The Police of Finland has opened an investigation under the article on aggravated vandalism.
In addition to Estlink 2, three offshore communication cables failed on Wednesday evening, telecom operators Elisa and CITIC reported.
According to Aunsson, Eagle S may also have damaged the C-Lion1 cable between Finland and Germany, which failed about a month ago after the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3 passed by it at a lay-by off the coast of Sweden.
The vessel is owned by Dubai-based Caravella LLC. According to Whois service, her domain was registered on July 6, 2023, IStories noticed. Eagle S received its registration in the Cook Islands on July 26, 2023.
According to the MagicPort service, it is the only vessel Caravella owns. The tanker was operated by Peninsular Maritime India after it was registered in the Cook Islands, its records show.