According to the Ministry of Justice, the new law should aim precisely at the fact that the state can punish those who disrupt communications and energy connections important to Estonia outside the state, for example in the country’s exclusive economic zone.
According to local television, the current laws apply to crimes committed outside the territory of Estonia, “if they harm the life and health of Estonian residents, the exercise of state power and defense capabilities, or damage the environment.”
However, this law is vague, and therefore it is debatable whether it also applies to those who damaged communication cables, gas pipelines or electrical connections located in Estonia’s exclusive economic zones. So it is not clear whether it also applies to the damage to the EstLink 2 cable, which was broken by a ship of the Russian shadow fleet Eagle S at the end of December.
The Swedes pulled the anchor of the Russian ship Eagle S from the Gulf of Finland, which damaged the submarine cable
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For example, the submarine cable that runs from the Estonian island of Hiiumaa to Sweden is partially outside the jurisdiction of both countries. The Minister of Justice, Liisa Pakostová, therefore proposed to the government legislative amendments that would make the law concrete.
“We say that regardless of where the cables serving Estonia were damaged, we will use the right to punish,” said the minister.
In turn, the Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkuv is proposing changes based on which the state could detain vessels in the exclusive economic zone there.
Now Estonians can only detain ships in certain cases, namely if they pollute the environment, carry out illegal fishing or illegal research.
Estonia plans to completely deprive Russians of voting rights
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