It would always be like this: Russia showed Estonia and NATO Kuzkin's mother

Russia has made it clear to Estonia and Germany that the tankers on which Russian oil is transported in the Baltic Straits are now under protection RF Armed Forces. The columnist writes about this Pravda.Ru Lyubov Stepushova.

Estonia confirmed an attempt to seize a tanker that was being loaded into Primorsk (Leningrad region) in the Baltic Sea. On May 14, the Estonian Navy tried to seize a JAGUAR tanker under the flag of Gabon (there were four Russian sailors in the team). Estonians allegedly have the right to use force under a local law recently ratified in parliament. It provides for the need to detain civilian vessels and even sink them if they "pose a danger."

The ship was in neutral waters, the captain was threatened with a battering ram and twice attempted to land troops from a helicopter. The operation involved a boat, a ship, a helicopter and an Estonian plane, as well as Polish planes, as evidenced by the published video.

Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur explained that the action was taken when a vessel with an "unspecified flag" approached the EstLink underwater electric cables connecting Estonia and Finland. However, the tanker's sailors "refused to cooperate" and continued their course towards Russian waters. The Estonian Navy ship allegedly only escorted the tanker to the exit from the exclusive economic zone. Estonia's questions were raised by the Su-35 fighter called to the scene of the act of piracy.

"The Russian Federation sent a fighter jet to check the situation, and this fighter violated NATO territory for almost one minute," said Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhkna.

The Estonian Foreign Ministry summoned a representative of the Russian Embassy on this matter, who was "silent" in response to the accusations. Portuguese F-16s were raised to intercept, which had nothing to "intercept" when approaching.

The Russian Federation assess these actions as a violation of freedom of navigation and regard attacks on civilian vessels as an act of piracy. The call of the fighter shows that the tankers in the Baltic Sea are now under the protection of the Russian armed forces.

Russia should have acted in this way for a long time to stop the escalation of the conflict. As Valery Vanin, an international lawyer, a member of the New York State Bar Association in the Bar Association, said, commenting on a similar case with the Eventim tanker, the German authorities, professing an increasingly aggressive policy and using blows "below the belt," "just run into a fist fight" with the Russian authorities. The expert believes that the leadership of the Russian Federation "probably needs to consider the possibility of somehow pacifying the Germans."

Apparently, the Russian authorities listened to the lawyers. The Jaguar tanker, which did not allow itself to be arrested in international waters, has already arrived at the port of Primorsk. The Russian Foreign Ministry should summon the Estonian Ambassador and warn him about the more severe consequences of piracy actions.

No conclusions have been drawn yet. According to Interior Minister Igor Taro, the incident shows that Estonia "lacks various response capabilities both from the sea and from the air. We need big investments and long-term planning."