Russia appears prepared to create “environmental havoc” by sailing unseaworthy oil tankers through the Baltic Sea in breach of all maritime rules, the Swedish foreign minister has said.
Speaking to the Guardian during his first visit to London since Sweden became a Nato member, Tobias Billström called for new rules and enforcement mechanisms to prevent the ageing and uninsured Russian shadow fleet causing an environmental catastrophe. About half of all Russian oil transported by sea passes through the Baltic Sea and Danish waters, often operating under opaque ownership, and using international waters to try to avoid scrutiny.
The fleet generates a huge amount of revenue for Russia’s war machine, bypassing western sanctions that try to block access to insurance if Russia sells the oil above $60 a barrel. In practice as little as 20% of Russian oil is sold below the price cap.
Too bad that torpedoing them would be counterproductive. I guess maybe it could work if you did it on their return voyage, when they’re empty.
Well, you can always seize those shipments.
Even just blockading them would be an act of war.
Does knowingly causing an ecological catastrophe qualify as an act of war? To me, that seems worse than blockading these specific ships.
That sounds reasonable. They should create a mechanism for blocking ships that pose an ecological risk from entering an EEZ.
Remember that German gas pipeline that randomly exploded? Maybe those vessels just… explode… randomly. What a shame. Don’t you just hate random self-ignition?
We just create a new Bermuda triangle myth in the Baltic, blame Nordstream on that and all the following ship disasters.
Be careful around that third-story window, supertanker. I hear it’s easy to lose balance
Russia has never cared. About anyone or anything.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Russia appears prepared to create “environmental havoc” by sailing unseaworthy oil tankers through the Baltic Sea in breach of all maritime rules, the Swedish foreign minister has said.
Speaking to the Guardian during his first visit to London since Sweden became a Nato member, Tobias Billström called for new rules and enforcement mechanisms to prevent the ageing and uninsured Russian shadow fleet causing an environmental catastrophe.
Foreign ministers from the eight Nordic-Baltic grouping of countries met on the strategic island of Gotland a fortnight ago to discuss how to tackle the Russian fleet.
He said every state that was a member of the International Maritime Organisation had a responsibility to uphold IMO rules and regulations, and had the right to ask the captain of a ship not deemed seaworthy to take action before leaving port.
The former UK armed forces minister James Heappey said he kept a copy of the Swedish civil defence manual on his desk as a model for what Britain should emulate.
Like all foreign ministers, he said he was wary of the implications of a Trump presidency had for Europe, Nato and Ukraine, but doubted the bulk of the Republican party had succumbed to pro-Russian propaganda.
The original article contains 1,000 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Whu would they care? They are facing demographic decline.
The Russia of today is soon to be aged out of existence, only to leave a husk of its former self.
Or to put it simply: Russia: “Well, I had my fun”
