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Russia’s ‘spoofing’ Karpinsky - the ship that tried to dock in Estonia without leaving St Petersburg

Russia’s ‘spoofing’ Karpinsky - the ship that tried to dock in Estonia without leaving St Petersburg
Due south: the Karpinsky’s actual destination to Neko harbour, West Antarctica, at about 10.49am Pretoria time on 1 February 2023. (Source: Marinetraffic.com)
Tiara Walters
By Tiara Walters
23 Sep 2024
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Hide-and-seek ‘spoofing’ incident involving Rosgeo’s controversial Antarctic oil and gas ‘research’ vessel echoes possible past manipulations — including similar reports out of Cape Town.

At about noon on 16 September, global maritime tracking showed that the Akademik Alexander Karpinsky — a Russian survey ship infamous for mapping Antarctica’s banned oil and gas — was hovering at a peninsula in northern Tallinn, the Estonian capital. 

An ongoing ban imposed by the European Union since April 17, 2022, thwarts Russian-flagged ships from entering the region’s ports. The implications of the ship’s apparent presence in Tallinn — a location it has been barred from accessing — sent national maritime authorities scrambling. 

Upon inspection, officials confirmed that the ship was not physically present at the designated location, according to Forte, the Estonian news publication that broke the story. This apparent discrepancy led to the conclusion that the US-sanctioned ship had employed location spoofing — a tactic that can manipulate GPS data.

The ship had engaged in a significant incident of GPS interference, falsely positioning itself within global maritime information systems to appear docked in the Estonian capital, according to the news publication. 

Drawing on GPS data to relay the real-time positions for maritime ships, ship locations are primarily tracked through the Automatic Identification System (AIS). The Karpinsky, the publication concludes, appears to have used a “modified AIS”, or even a specialised military variant — capable of altering its reported location. This manipulation, the publication argues, allowed the ship’s coordinates to be artificially set to a port in Tallinn, while it was actually operating from its St Petersburg home port — about 170 nautical miles away. 

‘We can confirm that this is an example of spoofing’


The Estonian Transport Administration, in response to questions from Daily Maverick, confirmed that it considered the Karpinsky to be the cause of “spoofing” activity.

The transport administration “got the information that global ship-tracking page Marine Traffic showed that the Russian-flagged vessel ‘Akademik A. Karpinsky’ is in the Estonian port,” Maritime Division director Kristjan Truu noted by email. “We contacted the port authorities and it was confirmed that the ship is not in the port. We can confirm that this is an example of spoofing.”

Truu confirmed in a phone call with Daily Maverick that the observed incident had occurred on 16 September. 

Indeed, updated Marine Traffic data showed that the Karpinsky was actually in St Petersburg — not Tallinn — just after midday on that date.  

The Karpinsky’s location in St Petersburg, its home port, on 16 September. (Source: Marinetraffic.com)



Jaak Viilipus, maritime affairs director at Estonia's Ministry of Climate, said GPS disruptions in the Gulf of Finland were consistently reported after Ukraine's January 2024 attack on Russia's Ust-Luga oil terminal. It was also common for commercial merchant vessels under various flags to set Tallinn as their destination, only to change it once they approached Estonian waters. Dozens of tankers waited empty due to restrictions in Russia's exclusive economic zone, leading to unofficial anchorage areas in Estonian waters.

But the Karpinsky, it seems, was not in Estonian waters at the time of the reported incident. "Spoofing has not been reported on a large scale so far" and it was unclear if the Karpinsky's activities from St Petersburg were intentional, said Viilipus. Yet, the climate ministry was not prepared to rule out spoofing as a military tactic.

"Positioning the ship very precisely to drydock in Tallinn might not be random and might test the readiness to respond to that kind of asymmetric threat," said Viilipus. "Spoofing and GPS jammings are raising risks for maritime safety since the waters are shallow and the traffic is intense in the Gulf of Finland. We condemn those kind of actions where some countries intentionally play with maritime safety and raise risks for environmental disasters."

Russian authorities did not respond to requests for comment. 


An expert observer of Russian Baltic movements, who cannot be named, told Daily Maverick: “Tallinn is ‘suitable’ to use as a destination due to its vicinity to St Petersburg, plus it bothers Estonia to be associated with such a ship. Estonia are deadly enemies of Russia, so it’s probably particularly funny to out Tallinn.”

Asked if a technical error sparked the confusion, the observer noted wryly: “They don’t have a faulty nav system.” 

Spoofing en route to Antarctica? 


This is not the first time the blue and white-hulled Karpinsky — a controversial Antarctic survey ship that has made world headlines several times in recent years — appears to have spoofed its location to Tallinn. 

In February 2023, after sailing from St Petersburg and spending several days in Cape Town, the ship was due to head to Antarctica’s Amundsen and Ross seas —  as registered on the Antarctic Treaty’s shipping database, and as required by the treaty’s advanced notification rules. Even so, shipping data inexplicably suggested that the Karpinsky’s next stop was none other than the Estonian capital, from which it is banned, as it nosed out of the port city early on 1 February.

Due north? The Karpinsky’s reported destination to Tallinn, Estonia, at about 9.28am Pretoria time on 1 February 2023. (Source: Marinetraffic.com)



At the time, this ship had been the subject of high-profile environmental protests at the V&A Waterfront, a popular tourist destination, as well as Cape Town harbour. 



Updated tracking data on the same day revealed the Karpinsky was on its way to Neko Harbour, West Antarctica — where its owner Rosgeo, Moscow’s mineral explorer, has intensively studied the region’s oil and gas potential over six summers since 2011. 

Due south: the Karpinsky’s actual destination to Neko harbour, West Antarctica, at about 10.49am Pretoria time on 1 February 2023. (Source: Marinetraffic.com)



We did not receive responses from Rosgeo to our questions on the potential spoofing incidents to Tallinn out of both Cape Town and St Petersburg. 

Our request for immediate comment on 23 September was acknowledged by the South African government’s national transport department. Responses were not received by the deadline. 

‘Freedom of scientific investigation’


Daily Maverick first uncovered the Karpinsky’s oil and gas sorties in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean via Cape Town in October 2021. Using the port of Cape Town as its location, the state vessel had issued a February 2020 statement claiming it had identified 70 billion tons (500 billion barrels) of oil and gas in the seabed off East Antarctica. 

The Karpinsky, sailing under the flag of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, has never stopped mapping the warming region’s mineral resources — despite the 1991-signed mining ban that allows only legitimate scientific research. It has been official since 1998. 

While in East Antarctica in February 2023, relaunching Cape Town as an Antarctic gateway, Executive Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis told Daily Maverick that “Russian state vessels should not be here: all of these Russian war exercises, and the meetings with Russian government ministers, are a shameful moral disgrace”.

The South African government, which is in charge of port movements, has previously insisted that the Russian activities are legal research under the Antarctic Treaty’s “freedom of scientific investigation” principle — but the controversy has refused to die. 

Claiming scientific as well as geopolitical intent, Rosgeo has never retracted its claims of unconfirmed supergiant oilfields that would exceed global annual oil consumption by roughly 15 times. 

Westminster inquiry, Chile responds


In mid-February 2024, a Westminster inquiry heard that Russia’s potential mining interests in Antarctica posed a possible security threat. On 23 February, the US announced it had placed the ship under energy sanctions. 

A global media furore ensued, climaxing in May during the treaty’s consultative meeting in Kochi, India, when Chile President Gabriel Boric tweeted that Santiago would defend Antarctica against oil exploitation. Boric’s defence minister, Maya Fernández, and her senior defence officials had flown to the Antarctic sector facing South America, with a message for any state with “crafty aspirations”, the Associated Press reported. 



“We are going to be sitting in Antarctica in an act of sovereignty, of safeguarding and supporting our national integrity in the face of any threats,” said committee member Camila Flores.

Previous Antarctic accusations: ‘Evidence of vessel-spoofing is deeply concerning’


Russian vessel-spoofing in Antarctica is not unprecedented, according to Mathieu Boulègue, a Russian foreign policy and polar security expert. 

In January 2020, Russia’s Palmer fishing vessel was spotted by a New Zealand patrol aircraft fishing illegally in the Ross Sea’s protected waters. The ship had reportedly falsified its location, but evaded classification as an “IUU” — an illegal, unregulated and unreported vessel after Russia threatened to use its veto power at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. 

“Russia is contesting what it considers efforts by claimant states to delegitimise Russian interests and activities in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Such incidents are likely to increase in number and magnitude in the coming years,” Boulègue reported in a June 2022 Chatham House paper, The Militarisation of Russian Polar Politics. 

The Karpinsky’s “expeditions are designed to give Russia a better understanding of the offshore hydrocarbon potential of those areas and possibility of future extraction”, Boulègue concluded. 

“Evidence of vessel-spoofing is deeply concerning and should be investigated by the relevant authorities, including both coastal and flag states as well as international bodies,” said Dr Sian Prior, shipping adviser to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition. 

“Spoofing is illegal, and not only undermines the ability of states to ensure compliance and enforce agreed regulations aimed at protecting and managing the marine environment and wildlife, it undermines international safety regulations which aim to prevent shipping accidents and protect lives at sea,” Prior said. DM

This article was updated on 25 September 2024 to reflect comments by Estonia's Ministry of Climate received after publication. 

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