The thick fog hanging over the Baltic Sea complicates the patrol for the 50 sailors aboard the Jotvingis. On the horizon, a large black silhouette emerges from the winter gray. Yet the command bridge remains inactive.
The massive vessel disappears into the mist. Off the Lithuanian coast, military personnel ensure no ship displays threatening activity within their exclusive economic zone. On this freezing January morning, guard shifts on deck feel interminable. Upon rotation, the sailors quickly retreat inside the ship, where officers scrutinize radar screens, searching for suspicious vessels.
If the Jotvingis and the dozen other Lithuanian Navy vessels remain on high alert, it is because tensions in the Baltic Sea are at historic levels. Bordered by nine countries, the Baltic Sea is crisscrossed with electrical and communication cables. Often aging, poorly insured and operating outside legal oversight, they allow Russia to bypass Western oil sanctions. Swedish authorities detained the Michelis San, a bulk carrier sailing under the Maltese flag. A month earlier on Dec.
Finnish authorities reported that an oil tanker, the Eagle S, dragged its anchor along the seabed for 60 miles before it latched onto the cables.
Carrying oil and gas in defiance of international sanctions, the vessel remains docked along the Finnish coast pending investigative results.
