Kremlin threatens to deploy navy if Europe seizes more Russian shadow fleet vessels
A top Kremlin official has suggested Moscow could retaliate with its navy if European powers intensify the seizure and boarding of Russian ships in the Baltic Sea.
The threat comes as European countries toy with more direction action against Russia's "shadow fleet," a network of hundreds of tankers, flying foreign flags to evade sanctions.
Presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev, who had previously served as head of the FSB intelligence agency as well as secretary of the Security Council, made the comments to Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty on Feb. 17.
Over the past months, while most continue to operate uninterrupted, some shadow fleet tankers have come under increasing scrutiny, with France, Germany, Finland, and Italy all raiding ships suspected of Russian sanctions evasion, both at port and at sea.
On Jan. 22, the French Navy boarded and seized a suspected shadow fleet ship, later understood to be the tanker GRINCH, in an operation publicized by French President Emmanuel Macron as direct action against the Russian war effort.
The GRINCH was released on Feb. 17, the same day as Patrushev's comments, after paying a fine worth millions of euros, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote.
Meanwhile, the shadow fleet system has also come under pressure from Ukrainian naval attacks in the Black Sea, while the U.S. has also raided Russian vessels in connection with the Venezuelan oil trade.
In the interview, Patrushev called the European raids on shadow fleet ships "piracy," and expressed concern that the next step would be a full-fledged blockade.
"If we do not give them a strong resistance, then soon the British, the French and even the Baltics will become arrogant to such an extent that they will try to completely block our country's access to the seas, at least in the Atlantic basin," Patrushev said.
Despite tightening sanctions on Russia and a drawn-out decoupling from dependence on Russian oil and gas, European countries have so far been reluctant to clamp down harder on the shadow fleet, more than 600 of which have already been sanctioned.
