Tallinn issues protest after Russian icebreaker enters Estonian waters

On March 3, Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires in Tallinn, Kamran Abilov, and formally handed him a note of protest over what it described as a breach of navigation regulations in Estonian territorial waters.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, the incident occurred on February 28, when the Russian icebreaker Murmansk entered Estonian waters near Vaindloo Island in the Gulf of Finland without prior notification. The vessel reportedly remained in Estonian waters for approximately four minutes while assisting the tanker Olympic Friendship, which had become trapped in ice.

Estonian authorities stated that they had not been informed in advance of the manoeuvre and that the icebreaker failed to respond to radio communications from the Estonian navy during the incident.

Previously, Murmansk, along with the nuclear icebreaker Sibir, had been redeployed from the Arctic region to the Baltic Sea. In mid-February, ice coverage in the Gulf of Finland reached 80%. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported that ice coverage had not reached such levels since the winter of 2010–2011.

By Tamilla Hasanova