Growing pressure on the Kremlin’s shadow fleet is raising the prospect of retaliatory actions against European shipping.
Nikolai Patrushev, former director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and currently overseeing Russia’s maritime affairs, stated on Tuesday that the country’s navy should be prepared to counter what he termed “Western piracy.”
What further threats were made
“If these situations are not resolved peacefully, the navy will break through any blockade and proceed to eliminate it. And let’s not forget that many ships are sailing under European flags – we can too seize an interest in what they are carrying and where they are going,” he told the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.
Patrushev added that any attempt to impose a naval blockade on Russia would be illegal under international law, and dismissed the European Union’s employ of the term “shadow fleet” as having no legal basis.
The term “shadow fleet” refers to approximately 1,500 older or lightly regulated oil tankers operating through opaque ownership structures, helping Russia export crude oil to buyers such as China and India while circumventing Western sanctions.
British and Europeans considering seizing tankers
More than 600 vessels are subject to sanctions from the EU, the United Kingdom, and the United States, according to The Guardian. These measures have helped reduce Russia’s revenue from oil.
Patrushev’s remarks came as British Defence Secretary John Healey met with European counterparts on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss potential actions to seize tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet. The discussions highlight increasing international efforts to tighten enforcement of sanctions against Moscow and disrupt its energy exports, a key source of revenue for the Russian government.
