Customs and the Coast Guard boarded the Adler during the night until Sunday. In the afternoon, Swedish authorities left the ship.
It was then checked that what was on board was allowed to enter the EU, as it was goods from a third country. The case was handed over to a prosecutor to determine whether there was a reason to proceed with an investigation.
"I have been informed that the prosecutor will not initiate a preliminary investigation into suspected sanctions violations," Martin Höglund, press spokesperson at the Swedish Customs, told TT late in the evening.
The Customs operation was concluded and the Russian ship was allowed to leave Swedish waters. Late in the evening, the Marinetraffic website shows that the Adler has started moving in a northwesterly direction. A Coast Guard ship is nearby.
Cargo confidentiality
What the ship had in its cargo is not known. The Swedish Customs Board considers that this information is confidential.
"Even though the prosecutor has concluded that there is no basis for conducting a preliminary investigation, we believe that it was right for us to carry out this customs inspection. The ship's owner is subject to international sanctions and the ship was in Swedish waters," says Martin Höglund.
The Adler left a port outside St. Petersburg earlier this week. During the night on Saturday, it anchored off the Kulla Peninsula.
The ship stated that it had engine problems and had therefore entered and anchored in Swedish waters.
Is on sanctions lists
Adler is owned by the company M Leasing LLC, which is on sanctions lists in the EU and the US. The reason is that the company's ships are said to have transported North Korean ammunition that Russia then used in the war in Ukraine.
According to information in Sydsvenskan and HD, the ship has connections to the "Russian military complex".
The Coast Guard assisted the Swedish Customs, which lacks boats.
The government has been monitoring the situation.
"The government has been in close contact with our authorities throughout the process, and has been kept informed of the situation," said Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M), Minister of Civil Defense, in a comment to TT earlier today.
Corrected: In a previous version, the wrong day of the week was stated in the preamble.
