In April 2025, news appeared in the Russian media about the law recently adopted in Estonia, which allegedly allows local military to attack civilian vessels suspected in intent to damage underwater infrastructure. We checked the correctness of such publications.

In early April, Russian media reported that at first parliament, and then President Estonia approved a new bill, which expanded the powers of the defense forces and the country's Navy. “Estonia’s decision to attack and even drown the court in the Baltic, but Tallinn himself cannot do this, which means that someone is behind the Estonians,” they cite.RIA Novosti" Comment by the Assistant President of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev. Notes on this topic were released in "Newspaper.ru","Military review" And Eadaily. In addition to Patrushev, their comments on this subject gave, for example, a State Duma deputy Andrey Kolesnik and leading channel "Solovyov Live" Sergey Karnaukhov. Hundreds of posts about the new Estonian law can be found in Telegram, Facebook And "VKontakte".

At the end of 2024, the number of incidents with underwater cables in the Baltic Sea increased sharply. November 17 appeared messages On damage to the underwater communication cable, which runs between Lithuania and Sweden, and the next day the Finnish company Cinia reported about violations in the work of an underwater fiber -optic system connecting Germany and Finland. December 25th Flapsed Estlink 2 power transmission cable between Estonia and Finland, and three days later - another Three underwater communication cablesconnecting these two countries. Then the authorities of Finland Arrested The Eagle S tanker, which followed the flag of the islands of Cook and dragged his anchor along the bottom of the Gulf of Finland by more than 100 km, thereby damaging four cables. According to some reports, this tanker was part of the so -called shadow fleet - a network of vessels transporting Russian oil bypassing sanctions.

The Estonian bill on sea security, adopted in April 2025, became the answer On these frequent incidents in the Baltic Sea. Minister of Justice and Digital Technologies Liise Pacost celebratedthat damage to underwater cables and pipelines, even committed by negligence, should be punishable. “The location of cables and pipelines was noted on navigation maps, and the risk of damage to the anchor is well known to the sailors,” Pacosta said when the bill was only preparing.

On the Estonian Parliament website It is saidthat accepted law It gives the defense forces “sufficient flexibility” of response to threats directed against critically important infrastructure, ports and state defense objects. It also determines the measures that the Estonian military will be able to use in the economic zone of the country when performing their tasks.

The Estonian Navy, indeed, has the right to sink a civilian ship in extreme cases if it poses a serious threat to security. However, the messages of the Russian media are noticeably distort the norm of the law - it does not say that there is enough suspicion, for example, in the commission of a sabotage. IN text The law is directly stated: the Estonian military can apply force only if the threat cannot be reflected by other means, including state supervision measures and direct coercion, and the damage that arose as a result of the use of force should be much less potential damage that arose as a result of the threat. Actually, the sinking of a potentially dangerous vessel is indicated in the law as an extreme measure, when the team does not fulfill the demand to stop or leave Estonia's territorial waters. About the same on April 9, on the eve of the vote under the bill, said the chairman of the parliamentary defense committee, Kalev Stestscu. He is on purpose He emphasized: Damage to underwater cables cannot be the basis for sinking a civil vessel.

Thus, the assertion that Estonia has adopted a law that allows you to heat suspicious vessels to protect underwater cables is a manipulation. The new law really expands the powers of defense forces to ensure marine safety. However, it is explicitly stated that the sinking of the vessel is possible only in exceptional cases when there is a clear risk of damage to a critical infrastructure, and all other measures were ineffective.

Photo on the cover: Pjotr Mahhonin / Wikimedia Commons