Estonia releases Russian “shadow fleet” tanker after eliminating violations

The head of the Estonian Foreign Ministry said that the country will coordinate actions more closely with partners for the safety of maritime infrastructure and environmental protection.

Estonia will continue to cooperate with the countries of the Baltic and North Seas to protect the environment and ensure the safety of maritime and underwater infrastructure in the Gulf of Finland. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna, writes Postimees.

“Today, the Russian tanker Kiwala was allowed to continue its voyage after the elimination of serious deficiencies in the vessel,” Tsahkna said. “The detention of vessels of the Russian “shadow fleet” in Estonia and recently in Finland shows that such actions do not go unpunished and that we have the opportunity to stop them.”

As a reminder, the tanker Kiwala was intercepted by Estonian naval forces in the Baltic Sea on the morning of April 11. The captain provided documents according to which the vessel allegedly flies under the flag of Djibouti. However, by that time, Djibouti had already revoked its flag due to the vessel’s illegal activities. In addition, the tanker did not have valid insurance and was under sanctions from the EU, the UK, Canada and Switzerland. After the inspection, the Department of Transport inspectorate found 40 deficiencies, and the vessel was banned from continuing on its path to eliminate the violations.

“This case once again confirms that the registers of the so-called flags of convenience countries have serious flaws: the data is unreliable, and communication with them is problematic,” the minister stressed.

Back in June last year, Estonia was the first to begin a systematic inspection of vessels of the Russian “shadow fleet”, and since then has requested insurance documents from more than 500 vessels.

Earlier, USM reported that Estonia allowed the military to sink suspicious vessels.