Late last year, Finnish special forces seized control of the Eagle S, a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker, after it dragged its anchor and severed critical undersea cables. The maneuver — what would later be described as a “turning point” — was the first time Finnish forces had boarded and seized any foreign ship since World War II.
A seven-month long 60 Minutes investigation revealed that the Eagle S incident was not an isolated case. Authorities suspect Russian aggression aimed at undersea infrastructure, prompting NATO to launch “Baltic Sentry,” deploying ships and planes to monitor the shadow fleet and safeguard critical seabed infrastructure. British Adm. Keith Blount, NATO’s deputy supreme allied commander Europe, said the Eagle S incident was a provocation that demanded a response.
“We’re not going to be pushed around, interfered with,” Blount said. “We’re not going to be subject to illegal behaviors that either threaten the rule of law, or worse, threaten the safety and security of our people.”
Christmas Day 2024
The Eagle S, loaded with Russian gas and en route to Egypt, triggered a nationwide alarm in Finland on Christmas last year. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo was celebrating with his family when an urgent call from Finland’s Border Guard shattered the holiday calm.
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A critical undersea electric cable, Estlink-2, had been severely damaged 50 miles off the Finnish coast. Because there had been five other recent suspicious cable and gas line breaks, the Border Guard told the Prime Minister they suspected Estlink-2 was deliberately severed by a ship.
With the Eagle S near Finnish territorial waters, Prime Minister Orpo authorized the extraordinary step of moving to intercept the tanker. As the Coast Guard vessel Turva sped toward the Eagle S, police and Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation monitored from shore.
Helsinki Police Chief Jari Liukku said the Coast Guard radioed the Eagle S, asking if its anchors were up and secure. They were told “Yes sir, our anchors are secured.” But three hours later, as the Turva closed in, the crew could see that was not true. The anchor chain was hanging in the water.
“We had a strong reason to believe that it was an intentional activity from their side,” Liukku said.
Just after midnight, as the ship entered Finnish waters, Finland dispatched an armed team of special forces to the Eagle S by helicopter. They dropped onto the vessel in the dark and seized control from about two dozen crewmen from the countries of Georgia and India.
Increase in undersea cable cuts raises alarm
In the past two years, at least 11 cables, including a gas pipeline, have been cut in the Baltic, according to Finnish police, primarily in the waters off Finland, which shares an 832-mile border with Russia’s west. Undersea cables carry the lifeblood of modern existence: electricity, gas, digital communications, global banking and the internet.
If the next cable in the Eagle S’s path had been severed late last year, it could have stressed Estonia’s electricity and gas supply, according to Risto Lohi, who oversaw the Eagle S case for Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation.
“There was imminent threat that other critical infrastructure between Finland [and] Estonia would be damaged,” Lohi said.
Finnish investigators determined that the Eagle S raked its anchor across the sea bottom for more than six hours. When the ship was ordered to haul it up, the anchor was so battered, it snapped off the chain. Investigators found the anchor and the drag mark on the seabed. The drag mark, starting from the first damaged cable, was continuous until the location where the Eagle S was stopped, Lohi said. The anchor was dragged for about 66 miles.
Police handed their evidence to Finnish prosecutors, who charged the captain and two senior officers of the Eagle S with aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated interference with communications. They pleaded not guilty. The damaged cables cost $70 million to repair, according to prosecutors. The case is still underway. In court, the captain claimed the anchor had been dragged by accident.
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Coast Guard Cmdr. Mikko Simola said the tanker’s behavior raised serious alarms. There are safety mechanisms to prevent an anchor from dropping accidentally. Simola said it’s hard for him to believe an anchor would have been dropped and dragged for so long without the Eagle S captain knowing what was happening.
“A captain of the vessel must always know whether the anchor is hoisted or in the sea,” Simola said.
Where Russia comes in
A seven-month investigation by 60 Minutes uncovered the Eagle S owners, hidden behind layers of shell companies. Public records list the primary owner as a woman from Azerbaijan, with an office in Dubai. The ship is managed by a company in India and leased to a major Russian oil company. That oil company has financed a fleet of hard-to-trace tankers to move Russian oil, evading Western sanctions. It’s part of a Russian shadow fleet, Orpo explained.
“It is pumping money to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war machine,” he said.
Orpo said the shadow fleet’s constant presence in the Baltic Sea is raising the temperature with Russia, barely 200 miles across the water. He said he considers Russia a threat, and that he’s seen “many hybrid attacks.”
“We have seen these incidents in [the] Baltic Sea. We have seen sabotage in Europe. So we are not in the war, but we are under attack,” Orpo said.
Beyond recent Russian aircraft incursions into NATO airspace, European Union officials have connected Russia to numerous attacks in Europe: firebombings, assaults on rail and arms depots, explosive packages — and now the mystery of the Eagle S.
Orpo said Finland was not experiencing this rash of broken undersea cables before the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.
“I can only say that was clear connection between Russian shadow fleet and these incidents,” Orpo said. “It’s clear.”
Russia has denied involvement in the cable cutting.
Responding to the potential sabotage
Orpo said the Eagle S was a test of Finland’s resolve, and the country sent a clear response: Finland has its limits.
Finland joined NATO in 2023 and is working with the organization in response to cable cutting, NATO Adm. Blount said. Since the launch of Baltic Sentry, designed to prevent cable cutting in the Baltic, there have been no further incidents, Blount said.
Because of its connection to the shadow fleet, the Eagle S was sanctioned by the EU, England and Canada, restricting its access to ports.
“We have to react. And it was [the] first time we react,” Orpo said. “We show that we are ready to defend our critical infrastructure, our property. And that’s why it was [a] turning point.”
