A Russian vessel is suspected of a territorial violation of Finland’s marine area in the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea, the Finnish defense ministry said on Friday.
The suspected violation, which the Finnish Border Guard is currently investigating, took place in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland Friday afternoon, a brief government statement said.
The ministry didn’t disclose further details of the incident but the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat said, citing information from border officials, that the suspected vessel is the Russian Navy’s hydrographic survey ship, the Mikhail Kazansky.
The Russian vessel, used among other things for underwater topography and repair work, entered into Finnish territorial waters south of the town of Hamina without authorization just after noon Friday, and the violation lasted about seven minutes, the newspaper said.
“We’ve boarded a rogue vessel using a Russian flag. We know you guys wouldn’t do something like this. You’re welcome. So, these rebels we captured, you want them?”
The "some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters"1 of international incident responses, I like it.
1
https://loweringthebar.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/browns_letter_1974.pdf
Yeah, the last time the Russians denied having troops attacking Syrian positions, the US did the “is this yours? I’d like to clean it up otherwise” routine.
It is now known as the Battle of Khasham, with casualties on the US side numbering 1 Syrian fighter being injured, while on the other side accounts differ between 100 and 500 Russian Wagner soldiers killed.
Mattis checked with his Russian counterpart before, during, and after to make absolutely certain there were no Russian forces in the area. By the end of the bombings, that statement became true.