By Andrius Sytas
TALLINN (Reuters) -Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker on Sunday after it left an Estonian Baltic Sea port, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said, adding that it had alerted NATO allies to the incident.
The Liberia-flagged ship Green Admire was leaving Sillamae port using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement.
“Today’s incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,” said Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. “I have also informed our Allies of the event.”
The Green Admire had departed Sillamae port on Saturday 18:40 GMT, and on Sunday afternoon was anchored near Russia’s Hogland island, according to Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessels.
The ship was bound for Rotterdam with a load of Estonia’s shale oil, said the Estonian Transport Administration.
The navigation channel out of Sillamae through Russian territorial waters has been set up under an agreement between Estonia, Finland and Russia to avoid shallows in the Estonian waters, the administration said.
Vessels sailing into and out of the port will now be guided through Estonian territorial waters, it added.
The Baltic has seen confrontations at sea over what NATO countries have described as Russian efforts to evade sanctions and sabotage undersea cables and pipelines.
On Thursday, Estonia said Russia had sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea after an attempt to stop a Russia-bound tanker thought to be part of a so-called ‘shadow fleet’ used by Moscow to evade sanctions.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Peter Graff)
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