Northern European countries tighten control over Russia’s shadow fleet

Twelve Nordic countries will check the insurance documents of ships that may be involved in Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.

Nordic countries have adopted new measures aimed at combating the Russian fleet, which transports oil and petroleum products, bypassing Western sanctions. This was reported by the press service of the Estonian government.

So far, six countries – the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland and Estonia – have agreed to instruct their maritime departments to check the insurance documents of suspicious ships passing through the English Channel, the Danish Straits and the Gulf of Finland. Information about ships that refuse to provide data will be carefully analyzed, which will allow appropriate decisions to be made.

The decision was also supported by Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway, but it has not yet been specified whether these countries will participate in the checks directly.

These measures are designed to increase the effectiveness of sanctions compliance monitoring, as well as prevent illegal operations that finance Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal emphasized that the Russian shadow fleet poses a threat to Europe’s security, economy and ecology, and called for decisive action to counter this threat.

“Russia uses its shadow fleet to circumvent sanctions and reduce their impact. We must prevent this in order to increase Russia’s spending on the war against Ukraine,” the government official noted.

As USM wrote, the day before, the EU adopted the 15th package of sanctions against Russia. The new measures are aimed, in particular, at circumventing sanctions by the Russian shadow fleet and weakening Russia’s military-industrial complex.

At the same time, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry called for new, tougher sanctions against Russian liquefied natural gas.