Finland releases Russian ‘spy’ ship but continues to detain three crew members as suspects

Finnish authorities are to release on Monday the Eagle S — an oil tanker that was seized by armed police after severing multiple subsea cables on Christmas Day — while continuing to detain three members of its crew.

A criminal investigation found the Baltic Sea infrastructure damage was caused by the Eagle S dragging its anchor along the seafloor for almost 62 miles in an act the lead investigator, Chief Inspector Risto Lohi, said the police suspected was intentional.

Eight members of the crew were suspected of aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications and subjected to a travel ban, a policing measure short of arrest. For five of those the travel ban was canceled this week, although the three remaining suspects remain prohibited from leaving the country.

In a statement on Sunday, the Finnish police announced that the Eagle S would “leave Finland's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone under the control of the Border Guard,” and that they aimed to complete the criminal investigation into the three remaining crew members by the end of April.

The Eagle S is reported to have been previously used as a Russian spy ship and to be part of what Western countries describe as Russia’s “shadow fleet” — a collection of up to 1,000 decrepit vessels with opaque ownership structures that sail under flags of convenience to export sanctioned Russian goods, particularly oil.

Traficom, the Finnish transport and communications agency, said it had inspected the Eagle S and identified deficiencies in the tanker, both in terms of its crew accommodation and the general maintenance of the ship, particularly in regards to fire safety, navigation equipment and pump room ventilation.

“Our inspectors have visited on board the ship and concluded that the deficiencies that led to the detention of the ship and the other deficiencies detected during port state control have been rectified. Therefore, Traficom has released Eagle S,” said Traficom’s maritime director Sanna Sonninen.

The Finnish police added that while the country’s customs agency had detained the cargo of the Eagle S — unleaded petrol and diesel from Russia, sanctioned by the European Union — as this cargo is being transferred outside of the EU, the Eagle S is effectively free to transport it beyond Finland’s territorial waters.