Estonia changes shipping route through Russian waters after Russia detains Green Admire tanker
Due to Russia's detention of the oil tanker Green Admire, Estonia has decided to no longer use the agreed route through Russian territorial waters, Estonian broadcaster ERR reported.
"Today's incident [ed. – the incident occurred on May 18] shows that Russia, as before, is behaving unpredictably, so in the future the ships will be redirected to another route," said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
He added that the route the tanker was taking was agreed upon with Russia.
"This navigation route, chosen to ensure maritime safety, which does not pass strictly beyond state borders, was established by mutual agreement between Russia, Estonia and Finland," Tsahkna emphasized.
The Estonian Department of Transport told ERR that in order to avoid similar situations in the future, ships arriving in and departing from Sillamäe will now only pass through Estonian territorial waters.
The Liberian-flagged oil tanker Green Admire left the port of Sillamäe on May 17 at approximately 6:30 p.m. and headed for the northern part of the Gulf of Finland.
But on the night of May 18, Russia stopped the ship and then sent it to its island of Gogland. Since four in the morning, the tanker has been anchored near this island.
"This is clearly due to the fact that we have begun to put pressure on Russia's shadow fleet. And I am not only talking about Estonia, but also about Finland and the countries of the Baltic region in general. Within the European Union, we have already added more than 300 shadow fleet vessels to the sanctions lists," Tsahkna said.
At the same time, the country's Foreign Minister sees no need to hold negotiations with Russia.
"We don't see a direct need for this right now. If you look at the situation, it's actually quite calm – the tanker complied, there was no use of force – but, of course, we are closely monitoring whether the vessel will be able to continue moving," Tsahkna added.
- On April 11, Estonia detained a tanker from Russia's shadow fleet. It was heading to Ust-Luga without a flag.
- In May, the Estonian Navy attempted to stop the tanker Jaguar, which belongs to the Russian shadow fleet. The vessel did not stop, and Russia sent a fighter jet to escort it, which violated Estonian airspace.