PORVOO, Finland — Secluded in a Finnish bay and barely visible between snow-flecked trees, a creaky tanker the length of two football fields quietly bobs up and down — a surprisingly tranquil scene considering the waves it has sent across Europe.
Finnish authorities seized the Eagle S ship in December in an all-guns-blazing operation, suspecting it had sabotaged a subsea power link connecting Estonia to Finland. The detention of the ship — which was carrying 100,000 barrels of oil from St. Petersburg — was a galvanizing moment and appeared to be a new front in a clandestine war between Russia and the West.
Now, European countries are holding behind-the-scenes talks on large-scale seizures of Moscow’s oil-exporting tankers in the Baltic Sea, according to two European Union diplomats and two government officials. They are also currently drafting new legislation to add legal heft to those efforts.
The proposals being considered include using international law to grab vessels on environmental or piracy grounds, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the private talks. Failing that, the countries could go it on their own, jointly imposing fresh national laws to seize more ships farther out at sea.
