Moscow continues to transport its oil and dodge sanctions by relying on an ever-growing “shadow fleet” — aging vessels with obscure ownership and unknown insurance. Russia’s oil and gas exports generate around half of the Kremlin’s revenues.
“Close to 50 percent of sanctioned trade [in Russian seaborne oil] is going through the Gulf of Finland,” said Estonia’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. “There are the environmental threats, there are the attacks we’ve had against our undersea infrastructure.”
“Now the question is … what can we do with these ships?” he told POLITICO. “We cannot block all the sea, but we can control more. … There are lots of opportunities.”
The talks gained fresh momentum after Finland seized a suspected shadow fleet vessel suspected of sabotaging Baltic Sea power and telecoms cables in December. The ideas being considered fall under three categories, the officials said.
First, authorities could grab vessels that risk damaging the local environment, such as through oil spills. Second, the officials said, countries could use piracy laws to seize ships threatening critical undersea infrastructure.
Finally, if international law fails, countries are also discussing jointly imposing new national legislation to make it easier to grab ships further out at sea. Those could include requiring tankers in the Baltic Sea to use a prescribed list of credible insurers, the officials said.