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1 May 2024

Russia’s Shadow Fleet Goes Rogue

Elisabeth Braw

The frequent presence of the Kremlin’s sanctions-dodging vessels off the coast of Gotland, where they perform dangerous ship-to-ship transfers of oil, is a clear provocation, not to mention a looming threat to marine life.

Now the Swedish Navy reports that shadow vessels in the waters of Sweden’s exclusive economic zone don’t just conduct their regular business: they’re also equipped with communications gear that is in no way needed by standard merchant vessels. The Russian shadow fleet appears to simultaneously be a spy fleet.

This collection of ships — estimated to number about 1,400 vessels worldwide — may operate in the shadows, but it’s indisputably there, and its activities are growing – especially in the Baltic Sea. The fleet transports pretty much anything asked of them, and in the past two years that has meant a lot of Russian oil, because Russia wants to keep exporting above the Western-imposed price cap.

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