Russia Appears to Arm LNG Tanker in Baltic as Maritime Tensions With NATO Deepen

Russia has apparently equipped one of its most strategically important liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with heavy machine guns, according to photographs taken by Estonia’s border authorities, marking what analysts say is an unprecedented militarization of a civilian Russian energy vessel.

The images, first reported by a consortium of European media including Estonia’s Delfi, show two heavy machine guns mounted on the bridge wings of Gazprom’s Marshal Vasilevskiy while the ship was operating in the Gulf of Finland in May.

The photographs, taken from an Estonian Border Guard surveillance aircraft, also show what appear to be sandbagged firing positions and protective