Finns impound Russian military cargo bound for Syria

Finland’s customs authority, Tulli, expects to complete its investigation in to a suspected illegal shipment of military equipment through Helsinki’s Vuosaari harbour, by the end of March. 
The shipment, found on a Finnlines vessel, theFinnsun, consisted of Russian-produced battle tank armoured plates and spare parts loaded in St Petersburg and en route to Syria. 

According to Tulli, no official export documents, originating in Russia or from the Ministry of Defence in Finland, could be furnished by the ship’s crew or company to prove that the suspected trade shipment cargo had the required military export permits. 

Confirmation that the cargo did not have military export permits was received by Tulli from Finland’s MoD on Tuesday and from the Russian export control agency on Wednesday. 

The delivery, transfer and export of military equipment from Finland to Syria is expressly prohibited by order of the European Council.

Tulli has impounded the Finnsun’s cargo in its original containers at Helsinki port. The ship’s owners, captain and crew are under investigation for possible breaches of Finnish and EU military equipment export rules. 

Finnlines, which is majority-owned by Italy’s Grimaldi Group, said it had notified authorities about the cargo.

Petri Lounatmaa, senior investigator at Tulli’s customs investigation service unit, said: “We have interviewed the crew and all officers as part of our continuing inquiries. 

"We have seized documents from the ship’s owner. They cover what parts were shipped, the sender and the destination, but we have no official documents that permit the export of these materials.”.

Tulli said that its communications with Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state arms exporter, confirmed that the agency had no record of issuing an export licence for the military hardware and spare parts found on theFinnsun.

Figures from the Stockholm-based global politics and security think-tank, SIPRI, suggest that Russia has exported military hardware worth €1 billion to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime since 2011.




Source    IFW  March 2013