Kremlin says Russia will defend its ships in the Baltic Sea with all means available

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would defend its ships using the Baltic Sea with all means available and that a failed Estonian attempt to seize a tanker there recently showed that Moscow could respond with tough action if it had to.

Estonia said on Thursday last week that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea during an Estonian attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker thought to be part of a “shadow fleet” defying Western sanctions on Moscow.

Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, on Sunday then detained a Greek-owned oil tanker in Russian waters after it had left an Estonian port, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported on Tuesday.

The detention of the vessel, since released by Russia, fuelled concerns about potential shipping disruption in busy Baltic sea lanes used to transport oil.

Asked what Russia could do to protect its shipping interests in the Baltic Sea from what Moscow has described as hostile action from EU member states and Britain, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:

“As the latest events related to the attempted pirate attack on one of the tankers showed, Russia demonstrated it is capable of responding quite harshly.”

Peskov said Russia was ready to use “all means” at its disposal in future to respond to such incidents within the framework of international law and had a wide range of response options to choose from.

A spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday accused NATO of carrying out what she called aggressive actions in the Baltic Sea that impeded the freedom of shipping after Estonia tried and failed to seize the Russia-bound tanker.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Anastasia Teterevleva; editing by Andrew Osborn/Guy Faulconbridge)