Moscow is prepared to deploy naval assets to protect its vessels from seizure by European powers, a senior Russian intelligence official said Tuesday, as Western nations ramp up their fight against the country’s shadow fleet.
Former FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev, who heads Moscow’s maritime board, announced it would be illegal under international law for any country to impose a maritime blockade on Russia and threatened to retaliate against European ships if “western piracy” worsened.
“If this situation cannot be resolved peacefully, the navy will break any blockade and move to eliminate it. And let’s not forget that many vessels sail the seas under European flags — we, too, may take an interest in what they are carrying and where they are headed,” he said, according to the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.
Mr. Patrushev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, added that if Moscow does not issue a strong response to European actions, then soon Russian ships would be blocked from the Atlantic Ocean.
Mr. Patrushev’s comments come as Western leaders look to curb the export of Russian oil via the country’s fleet of so-called shadow vessels. The ships are older, specialized oil tankers used to covertly transport crude oil to Russia’s major buyers, mostly China and India, thereby skirting international sanctions.
International observers say that heavily sanctioned countries such as Iran, China, Venezuela and Russia rely on shadow fleets to maintain steady revenue streams amid harsh economic restrictions.
Increasingly, European and U.S. officials have looked to curbing Moscow’s fleet of illicit oil tankers to pressure Russia’s economy and limit their warfighting ability in Ukraine.
Still, European navies have yet to implement a widespread strategy aimed at physically stopping the Russian ships, relying instead on time-tested economic sanctions. Some have called for European powers to stop suspected shadow vessels for inspections before eventually confiscating their cargo.
The French navy did briefly stop a suspected Russian shadow vessel in the Mediterranean last month. The ship was eventually allowed to leave French waters after paying “several million euros,” according to the French Foreign Ministry.
Typically, shadow vessels are uninsured and may not even have proper documentation that would tie them to a specific nation. This, some European countries have argued, could be enough for Western vessels to stop the tankers and seize their cargo.
Unlike Europe, the U.S. has moved recently to physically stop some Russian-linked vessels in the Caribbean that were suspected of transporting sanctioned oil off the coast of Venezuela. Moscow strongly condemned the seizure and argued that it had no legal basis.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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