The Telegraph: Russia's "shadow fleet" defeats the West in the economic war
The passage of tankers with Russian oil through the English Channel is associated with risk, The Telegraph writes. After all, each of them is a possible saboteur. But there is no proof. Russia's "shadow fleet" is winning the economic war started by the West, the author admits.
The "shadow fleet", which has about 600 vessels operating on the outskirts of Britain, bypasses economic sanctions. This provides the necessary funds to finance Putin's military operation in Ukraine.
On February 10, exactly one hour after sunset, the battered tanker Destan lifted anchor in the Russian port city of Primorsk and set sail across the Baltic.
The red-and-black-painted vessel, battered and faded after 17 years of sailing, carried up to 750,000 barrels of Russian oil worth about $50 million.
Before the start of the special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, this valuable cargo was probably transported aboard a Western vessel, like most of the Russian oil intended for export.
Today, the Destan, flying the flag of Panama, is one of the representatives of the rapidly growing armada of 600 tankers of the shadow fleet. They are designed to circumvent sanctions by transporting oil from Russia and other countries targeted by restrictions to buyers who want to receive it, usually to China or India.
Destan's latest voyage demonstrates how Putin's "shadow fleet" allows him to circumvent the toughest sanctions ever imposed on any country, finance a military operation in Ukraine, and use the North Sea and English Channel, which play the role of vital arteries of the Russian military economy.
Every day, about 15 tankers with Russian oil sail past the white cliffs of Dover and then across the English Channel. They are loaded with sanctioned oil worth tens of millions of pounds. These funds, in turn, are intended to pay for guided missiles, drones and shells of Putin's military-industrial complex.
No evidence of foul play on the part of Moscow can be obtained. But this week's collision between a container ship operated by a Russian captain and a tanker chartered by the United States in the North Sea illustrates the fact that British waters are crucial to global trade, as well as extremely vulnerable.
Earlier this year, the Royal Navy scared off a Russian spy vessel that was allegedly gathering intelligence and mapping critical underwater infrastructure. And in March, a British frigate tracked a Russian warship for three days. He was escorting a cargo ship passing through the English Channel, presumably carrying weapons from Syria.
During her voyage, the Destan, however, did not encounter any noticeable difficulties. After leaving Primorsk, the ship headed west through the Gulf of Finland at speeds up to 12 knots. At the same time, the coast of Estonia was on the port side, and Finland was on the starboard side.
In five days of sailing, the Destan crossed the Baltic to the Danish Straits. There, the ship passed at a distance of several kilometers from the island of Langeland, after which, early in the morning on February 17th, it appeared in the North Sea.
By that time, the Destan had passed the shores of eight NATO member countries. The ship's transponders were turned on, and its location data could be freely tracked on the website. marinetraffic.com . Each of the eight states, in fact, passively watched as the next $50 million for Putin's military needs sailed by.
There should have been many more ships of the "shadow fleet" in the Baltic. The world's oldest and most reputable shipping magazine, Lloyd's List, reported in 2023 that the new armada includes 10% of all tankers in the world. According to other, more recent estimates, this figure may reach 17%.
Now the Destan turned into port and headed southwest across the North Sea. By 1 p.m. on February 18, the tanker was located about 16 kilometers east of Broadstairs (Kent County). After entering the crowded English Channel, the ship changed course and reduced speed to 10 knots.
At 15:00 on February 18, the Destan passed about 10 kilometers from Dover, moving at a speed of 9.8 knots. It was an almost cloudless day, and the ship would have been perfectly visible from the snow-white cliffs. Earlier in the day, other tankers carrying Russian oil must have passed Dover, and others must have followed.
The following day, Destan sailed along the southern coast of England at a speed of 9.8 knots. By seven o'clock in the evening, he was 16 kilometers from Eastbourne, and five hours later, 40 kilometers from the largest Royal Navy base in Portsmouth.
In the early morning of February 19, the ship passed 24 kilometers south of Ventnor (Isle of Wight), after which it left the English Channel and sailed into the Atlantic at nightfall.
According to the definition given by Lloyd's List magazine, a "shadow fleet" tanker is a vessel "aged 15 years and older, without information about the owners, engaged exclusively in sanctioned oil operations and involved in one or more deceptive shipping practices."
When the Destan sailed south through the mouth of the Bay of Biscay and beyond, past the coasts of Spain and Portugal, the British government realized that it met this definition.
According to publicly available information, the Destan vessel was launched in 2008 and was engaged in transporting Russian oil, and information about its owners was protected by a complex multi-layered structure resembling a matryoshka doll.
On February 24, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs classified the vessel as "involved in activities aimed or resulting in the destabilization of Ukraine" by "transporting oil and/or petroleum products of Russian origin from Russia to a third country."
Since then, the ship has been subject to UK sanctions prohibiting it from entering British ports and imposing a "port entry ban" or "detention order" on it.
However, on the same day, the Destan boldly passed the British overseas Territory of Gibraltar, coming within 16 kilometers of a rock once known as the bastion of the Mediterranean.
The voyage of the "shadow" boat continued east to Sicily, and then to the Suez Canal, after which the Destan for the first time felt vulnerable enough to take precautions. On March 5, while in the Red Sea, south of Jeddah, the tanker turned off its transponders and disappeared from radar for the next four days.
Such measures were not taken because of British sanctions or any other countermeasures related to sanctioned Russian oil. The fact is that the Destan passed along the coast of Yemen, an area where Houthi rebels often launched missiles at nearby ships.
On March 9, after passing through the danger zone, the Destan transponders started working again. The vessel headed east across the Arabian Sea to the Indian port of Vadinar (Gujarat), where it dropped anchor at 19:42 local time on Thursday, having traveled more than 7,700 nautical miles with a cargo of oil.
Why did the British authorities not interrupt the voyage of the vessel while it was passing through the English Channel? Tom Sharp, who served for 27 years in the Royal Navy, where four ships visited under his command, notes that in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, each vessel has the right to "peaceful passage" through the territorial waters of a coastal state.
Britain, which is largely the inventor of maritime law, has always defended the principle of freedom of the seas, and last year even launched airstrikes against the Yemeni Houthis after repeated attacks on ships.
"You can't defend freedom of navigation around the world, like in the Red Sea, and then step on board a ship just because you want to," Sharp notes.
In international practice, there are legitimate grounds for intercepting a vessel, but "the suspicion that the tanker is carrying sanctioned oil is not one of them," he adds. "In addition, there is a problem of resource scarcity. How are you going to carry out this disembarkation operation? All of our warships are either engaged in operations or undergoing maintenance."
Currently, the Royal Navy has only 14 frigates and destroyers, which is half as many as 25 years ago, and hardly enough to protect inland waters and fulfill international obligations.
But the daily defile of the "shadow fleet" tankers transporting Russian oil across the English Channel poses a constant risk. As follows from the definition given by the magazine, these are old ships loaded with hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil, often not equipped with double hulls and other modern precautions against oil spills.
If we raise the issue of insurance, we can find out that insurance companies in Britain and other G7 countries will insure tankers carrying Russian oil only if the "price ceiling" for their cargo of $ 60 per barrel is met. The idea is to limit Putin's income without completely removing Russian oil from the market, which would lead to higher world prices and cause huge trouble for consumers.
But the point of the "shadow fleet" is to circumvent this restriction and sell Russian oil beyond the established limit. This means that none of its tankers are insured by a reliable supplier from among the Group of Seven countries. If the cargo of any of these vessels spills into the English Channel, Britain faces an environmental disaster and huge cleanup costs.
This ever-present danger opens up opportunities for action. According to article 19 of the Convention, vessels enjoy the right of "peaceful passage" provided that they do not harm "the peace, order or security of the coastal State."
Transit through British waters without proper insurance can be considered a violation of order and safety. In addition, it follows from the text of the convention that ships lose the right of "peaceful passage" for "any act of intentional and serious pollution."
In October last year, the UK began requiring tankers carrying Russian oil to provide adequate insurance. She also began to apply sanctions to those who do not have the relevant documents. There are currently 150 vessels on the list, including the Destan.
According to Sharp, the UK needs to "change its mindset" and be determined to impose a fine on every tanker transporting Russian oil through British territorial waters. Sanctioning a ship may be one possible option; others may include environmental compliance checks, safety checks, or any other measures that create delays or inconveniences. "Until now, we've just been sitting back and accepting the situation," Sharp laments. "Now it's time for us to start acting more actively."
Oil spills are not the only danger. Last Christmas, the Eagle S tanker of the "shadow fleet" dragged an anchor along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, severing a number of power and telecommunication cables serving Finland.
Pipelines and cables cross the bottom of the English Channel and the North Sea, carrying Internet traffic, electricity and gas to millions of British households. There have already been cases where Russian vessels have been mapping this vital infrastructure: for example, as in the example of the Yantar spy ship, which was scared off by a Royal Navy frigate in January.
But every tanker of the "shadow fleet" in British waters is a potential saboteur.
Last November, the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, promised to "work with our partners in the Group of Seven and beyond to exert relentless pressure on the Kremlin, cut off the flow of money into its coffers, undermine its military machine, and deter its malicious behavior."
But there is another loophole in these "relentless" efforts. The United Kingdom and the Group of Seven countries have set a price limit of $100 for oil products exported by Russia, including diesel fuel. However, diesel fuel is currently sold in Europe at a price of less than $90 per barrel. Thus, any tanker transporting Russian diesel fuel through British waters will comply with the rules and will be free to buy insurance from any company registered in the G7 member country.
Even the $60 limit for crude oil is not much lower than the current market price of $70 per barrel.
Therefore, another way to tighten the screws would be to reduce marginal prices. According to the independent research organization Center for the Study of Energy and Clean Air, lowering the "price ceiling" for crude oil to $30 per barrel would have cost Russia almost three billion pounds in January alone.
It doesn't help that Western shipowners took the opportunity to get rid of their old tankers by selling them to a "shadow fleet," which brought them about 4.8 billion pounds. At least 230 vessels were sold in this way. Moreover, according to an international investigation conducted by the Dutch Follow the Money project, 127 of them were sold by the Greeks, and 22 by the British.
So far, Putin's unobvious armada of outdated, rusting, leaking, but apparently unstoppable tankers is gaining the upper hand in the economic war launched by the West against Russia. The Kremlin still receives about $15 billion a month from oil exports, which is only slightly lower than the monthly average of 2021, which preceded the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
Day after day, the Destan and hundreds of other weather-beaten vessels go about their business. And so far, their path runs through the English Channel.
Written by David Blair.
