Free Republic

Estonian authorities detained and boarded a ship in the Baltic Sea that belongs to Russia’s shadow fleet, Prime Minister Kristen Michal said Friday. The vessel, which Michal said did not sail under any nation’s flag but was previously registered to Djibouti according to publicly available records, was detained near Tallinn Bay in an operation involving helicopters. “Early this morning, the Estonian Navy detained a sanctioned vessel with no flag state,” Michal said in a post on social media. “Our authorities are currently on board, inspecting its legal status and safety.” The ship was heading to the port of Ust-Luga, a...

#Czechia looks to dig a new canal to connect three peripheral seas: the #BlackSea, the #BalticSea, and the #NorthSea. #European commerce and trade would flow uninterrupted from one end to the other.

Last Monday (December 23rd) three explosions rocked the Russian cargo ship "Ursa Major" in the western Mediterranean Sea. The vessel went down with 14 crew members rescued and two missing. The site of what the ship's owners called a "targeted terrorist attack" not too far away from the British outpost of Gibraltar... And then we have the seizure of a Russian affiliated oil tanker off Finland on Christmas Day. The vessel accused of sabotaging an underwater electricity link between Finland and Estonia. There have been other such incidents reported involving other merchant vessels of Hong Kong and Chinese ownership. The...

Nato’s newest members are moving to close the Baltic Sea to Russian ships in wartime. Sweden has just deployed a new anti-ship missile that ranges far enough to keep Russian ships from leaving Saint Petersburg or Kaliningrad and, by extension, leaving the Baltic to reach the North Sea and the wider Atlantic Ocean. The ripples from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent enlargement of Nato, continue to spread. In late December, the Swedish defense ministry tapped Swedish defense firm Saab to supply the Swedish armed forces with the new Mark 3 version of the RBS 15 anti-ship missile. “Sweden...

"hostile and egregious misconduct"...US Justice Department ethics complaint against... Video platform Rumble blocked in Brazil... acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Caleb Vitello removed... A federal judge ruling against President Donald Trump's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion executive orders... New York City courtroom today a hearing for Luigi Mangione accused in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO... The Associated Press filing a lawsuit seeking access... Oval Office and Air Force One... In Berlin...30-year-old Spanish tourist stabbed...Holocaust memorial... Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressing her dismay to Chinese Foreign Minister...live fire exercise warning from Chinese naval ships... A federal judge ruling to...

NATO moved Friday to enhance its naval presence in the Baltic Sea as Estonia’s navy began patrolling an undersea cable supplying energy from Finland. The move follows the excision of a different cable from the power grid on Christmas Day in what Finnish authorities allege is a case of deliberate, targeted sabotage by Russia, as Breitbart News reported. A ship named as Eagle S is suspected of damaging the Estlink 2 cable and Finnish coast guard crew have boarded the oil tanker and steered it into Finnish waters. The E.U. said the Eagle S was part of “Russia’s shadow fleet”...

The country’s prime minister said the incident, the latest in a series of disruptions to undersea infrastructure, underscored the danger of a so-called Russian shadow fleet.The Finnish police on Thursday boarded an oil tanker that the authorities said they suspected was involved in damaging vital undersea cables. They suggested the tanker was part of a shadow fleet used by Russia to avoid Western sanctions.The Estlink 2 submarine cable, which carries electricity between Finland and Estonia, was cut on Wednesday, Finland’s police said in a statement, the latest in a slew of disruptions to undersea infrastructure that are being investigated as...

European investigators believe a Chinese-owned commercial ship deliberately dragged its anchor to sabotage the two undersea telecommunications cables cut in the Baltic Sea earlier this month. However, Western law enforcement and intelligence officials told The Wall Street Journal that they don’t believe the Chinese government was involved. Instead, the probe is focused on whether Russian intelligence persuaded the vessel’s captain to carry out the operation. For the past week, NATO warships from Denmark, Germany and Sweden have surrounded the 225-meter-long Yi Peng 3. The ship’s Chinese owner, Ningbo Yipeng Shipping, is reportedly cooperating with investigators. The shipper allowed the commercial...

Russia has threatened to attack a new US defense base in Poland with “advanced weapons” — just hours after reportedly launching an intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday. Moscow leveled the warning after saying the opening of the ballistic missile defense base, located in the town of Redzikowo near the Baltic coast, would lead to an increase in overall nuclear danger. “Given the nature and level of threats posed by such Western military facilities, the missile defense base in Poland has long been added to the list of priority targets for potential destruction, which, if necessary, can be executed...

US politics the Pennsylvania Supreme Court with a 4-3 ruling directing local election... The President of the Russian region of Abkhazia carved out of Georgia in 2009 is resigning... Two communications cable in the Baltic Sea have failed...Investigations underway to determine if the damage was deliberate... A Lebanese official says Hezbollah has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal... Two killed another critically wounded in knife attacks in New York City... Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution... immediate ceasefire in Sudan's Civil War... Tonight an Israeli air attack in Beirut near government buildings and foreign embassies with at least...

<p>Baltic leaders reacted warily on Wednesday to reports that Russia could revise the borders of its territorial waters in the region.</p><p>In a draft proposal reported by some Russian media, Russia's Defence Ministry suggests updating the coordinates used to measure the strip of territorial waters off of its mainland coast and that of its islands in the Baltic Sea.</p>

Russia’s Defense Ministry has unilaterally moved to revise the borders of Russian territorial waters in the Baltic Sea, drafting a government decree on the expansion without even bothering to notify NATO members Finland and Lithuania. In reaction to the surprised responses of the Baltic Sea states, the Kremlin on Wednesday issued a statement that seems bound only to make matters worse. Insisting that there’s “nothing political” about the proposed border change, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the same breath that the “political situation” has in fact “changed significantly” since the borders were drawn. “You see how tensions are...

HELSINKI (AP) — Damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Estonia appears to have been caused by “external activity," Finnish officials said Tuesday, adding that authorities were investigating.

[familyop: the following is a translation to English courtesy of Welt.]The Russian special ship „ SS-750 “ is designed for underwater actions and has a mini submarine with gripping farms. The Danish Defense Command now confirms that a patrol ship observed the „ SS-750 “ a few days before the Nord Stream explosions.A few days before the Nord Stream explosions in the Baltic Sea, according to the Danish military, a Russian special ship was located near the detonation sites. The Danish Defense Command confirmed the newspaper „information“ that a patrol ship on 22. September 2022 east of the island of...

The question of who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines is likely to remain an unsolved mystery for some time.Even as new details surface from European investigators, one of the most intriguing clues to recently emerge comes not from official probes but via a 29-year-old open-source analyst based in Denmark. Oliver Alexander spent months analyzing data from the maritime Automatic Identification System, or AIS, from vessels that passed near the site of three out of the four pipeline ruptures shortly before the damage. He noticed that the Minerva Julie, a 600-foot Greek-flagged tanker, was headed east from Rotterdam when, on...

The Swedish Security Service’s crime scene investigation of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines has now been completed. The investigation has strengthened the suspicions of gross sabotage. The Security Service carried out the crime scene investigation, beginning this past weekend, with excellent support and cooperation from the Swedish Coast Guard, Armed Forces and Police Authority. The crime scene investigation has shown that there have been detonations near Nord Stream 1 and 2, within the Swedish economic zone, resulting in extensive damage to the gas pipelines. Certain seizures were made during the on-site investigation. The Swedish Security Service is...

The US has said it "seems" Russia is to blame for this week's leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the BBC an investigation was being carried out into the cause of what she called "an act of sabotage", adding "it is highly unlikely that these incidents are coincidence" No evidence about how the leaks happened has been made public. Russia has dismissed suggestions that it was to blame. President Putin described the damage as "unprecedented sabotage, in fact, an act of international terrorism" during a phone call with Turkey's President Erdogan, according to...

Danish authorities on Monday asked ships to steer clear of a five nautical mile radius off the island of Bornholm after a gas leak overnight from the defunct Russian-owned Nord Stream 2 pipeline drained into the Baltic Sea. The German government said it was in contact with the Danish authorities and working with local law enforcement to find out what caused pressure in the pipeline to plummet suddenly. On Monday evening, the operator of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which ran at reduced capacity since mid-June before stopping supplies altogether in August, also disclosed a pressure drop on both lines...

There was an incident on the Russian Baltic Sea pipeline, as confirmed by the Danish shipping authority. The operator Gascade speaks of a sharp drop in pressure in the tube. An accident is considered unlikely. The timing of the accident suggests sabotage.

Russia has deployed aircraft armed with hypersonic missiles along the Baltic Sea, a move that inches the country's forces closer to its NATO border, The Associated Press reported. In a Thursday announcement, the Russian Defense Ministry revealed that it moved three MiG-31 fighters brandishing Kinzhal missiles to Chkalovsk air base in Kaliningrad — a Russian enclave north of Poland and south of Lithuania. Moscow asserts that the Kinzhal missiles, which have already been used in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, have a range of up to roughly 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) and fly at ten times the speed of sound.