SpaceWar.com reports: “Finnish authorities said a Russian research vessel violated their territorial waters on Friday, amid rising tensions between the neighbours following Helsinki’s accession to NATO.

The Finnish defence ministry and coastguard announced the violation in the eastern Gulf of Finland in separate statements — the latest of several recent border incidents between the two countries.

‘The Russian Baltic Fleet research vessel Mikhail Kazansky crossed the external border of Finnish territorial waters’ east of Helsinki early on Tuesday afternoon, the coastguard said in a statement sent to AFP.

It said the vessel travelled about 1.2 nautical miles in Finnish territorial waters and left them seven minutes later.

It said a Finnish patrol boat tried several times to contact the Russian vessel without success.

Relations between the countries, who share a 1,340-kilometre-long (830-mile) border, have worsened since Finland joined the western military alliance NATO last year, in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine…”