Russia Exploits International Waters for Crude Oil Transit Amid Sanctions Pressure

Oneindia

Despite sanctions, Russia presses to ship crude oil globally to finance its war in Ukraine, exploiting international waters like the Danish Strait as a transit point. The Danish government, under pressure from Kremlin threats, seeks solutions to this ongoing challenge.     #Russia #Sanctions #CrudeOil #UkraineWar #InternationalWaters #DanishStrait #Geopolitics #EnergySecurity #GlobalTrade #Denmark #KremlinThreats #GlobalEconomy #OilTransit #InternationalRelations #SanctionsBypass

Transcript

00:00Shadow fleet, dark fleet, ghost fleet. Sinister synonyms for decrepit vessels with questionable

00:06ownership and inadequate accident insurance, which environmentalists say are carrying sanctioned

00:12Russian oil way too close for comfort in the Danish Straits.

00:17It is extremely serious and it is extremely risky. These oil tankers are carrying over

00:21100,000 tons of crude oil that is toxic to humans and to the environment and will put

00:28waste to our coastlines for decades if a big accident happens.

00:33A small accident did happen here in March when the 15-year-old, then Panama-flagged

00:38Andromeda star collided with another ship. Luckily, it was empty, but the crew reportedly

00:44could not prove the vessel had proper insurance, typical of shadow fleet ships.

00:49So we're left with the bill. We're left with the cleanup, right?

00:52Since the Danish Straits are international waters, Russia is allowed to use them, even

00:56though most of its crude oil cannot be sold directly to European buyers because of sanctions.

01:01But that free passage is coming under scrutiny.

01:05This country's relatively narrow waterways are a strategic gateway between Russia's ports

01:11and its major markets. But the growing number of these completely unregulated ships and

01:16growing public awareness about the dangers they pose are putting pressure on the Danish

01:21government to do something about them.

01:24Denmark journalist Jakob Kjeksborg has been exposing the fleet's murky business practices.

01:30They have flag states in countries like Gabon, which is a military dictatorship that recently

01:35had a coup.

01:36Some experts say the shadow fleet now carries four-fifths of all Russia's exports of crude

01:41oil under the regulatory radar.

01:44You have these vessels that don't exist on paper, but they're right here in front of

01:49my eyes. This huge fleet of oil tankers just working in Denmark every day, but nobody knows

01:55who's controlling them. I think that's very interesting, and I think we need to get to

01:59the bottom of who is controlling them.

02:02Now the Danish government pledges an international coalition will try to force better practices

02:07on the fleet. But how? Sanctions experts at the Kyiv School of Economics Institute believe

02:13the key is to more aggressively target ships known to be flouting their obligation to have

02:19credible oil spill insurance.

02:21The vessel would be identified as a property of a sanctioned entity, but most importantly,

02:29anyone interacting with this vessel or the cargo that it carries could face enforcement

02:34action themselves.

02:36That recommendation goes further than the European Union's new sanctions on some shadow

02:40fleet vessels, banning them for the first time from European ports and services. But

02:46that doesn't block the ships from sailing through international waters like the Danish

02:50Straits. Whether and how to do that is highly controversial.

02:55Are we willing to go out and intercept and stop this ship? Because if we are, then we

02:59are in the crosshairs of Moscow saying, OK, Denmark just stopped the ship. So we'll just

03:05make the next ship going through, make sure that it has an accident so that they have

03:09a huge pollution in Danish waters, and then Denmark can do the cleanup. And good luck

03:15with that.

03:17Moscow has already threatened Denmark with retaliation just for considering a response

03:21to the dark fleet. But without one, billions of dollars in illegal oil revenue will continue

03:27flowing through European waterways to the Kremlin war chest.

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