Russia Releases Greek-Owned Oil Tanker After Seizure in Baltic Sea

TDT | Manama

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Russia has released the Green Admire, a Greek-owned oil tanker flying a Liberian flag, days after detaining the vessel in its territorial waters, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported.

Russian authorities seized the tanker on Sunday after it left the Estonian port of Sillamäe and navigated through a legally designated channel crossing Russian waters. According to ship tracking data from LSEG, it is now en route to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

Estonia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the seizure, with Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna suggesting it was a retaliatory move by Moscow in response to Estonia’s crackdown on Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” — a group of aging tankers used to transport Russian oil covertly across the Baltic Sea. The Estonian Navy has been actively inspecting such ships in recent weeks.

“This incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,” Tsahkna said, confirming he had alerted NATO allies about the situation.

In response to the incident, Estonia will reroute maritime traffic to and from Sillamäe through exclusively Estonian waters to avoid further confrontations.

The incident follows heightened regional tensions, including the recent breach of NATO airspace by a Russian fighter jet after Estonia intercepted a suspected shadow fleet vessel.

The Russian shadow fleet largely consists of outdated tankers operated by opaque entities registered in countries like the UAE or Marshall Islands, and flagged in jurisdictions such as Gabon or the Cook Islands. Some of these ships have also been accused of transporting stolen Ukrainian grain.

The European Union has targeted these vessels with sanctions, adding 70 new ships to its blacklist in February, with more expected to be sanctioned in the coming days.