Germany tugs drifting oil tanker – believed to be Russian – to safer waters

The tanker, which is believed to be part of Russia’s efforts to evade sanctions, was discovered adrift in heavy seas off Germany’s coastline in the Baltic Sea.

A tugboat from Bremen was deployed which managed to tow it into safer waters off the nearby German island of Rügen on Saturday.

Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called the incident a danger to security and tourism in the Baltic Sea.

The Panamanian-flagged Eventin was believed to be carrying 99,000 tons of oil from Russia en route to Egypt when it went adrift for several hours. There was no immediate danger to the environment, the German news agency dpa reported.

Greenpeace said that Eventin belongs to a so-called Russian shadow fleet, which is made up of hundreds of aging tankers that are dodging sanctions in order to keep oil revenue flowing into the Russian state budget. The sanctions were imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Baerbock said that the incident shows that Russia is endangering European security “not only with its war of aggression on Ukraine” but with sabotage and disinformation “and even with dilapidated oil tankers.”

She said that Russia was not only circumventing sanctions “with the nefarious use of a fleet of rusty tankers,” but also endangering tourism in the Baltic Sea.