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
#Russia #Sanctions #CrudeOil #UkraineWar #InternationalWaters #DanishStrait #Geopolitics #EnergySecurity #GlobalTrade #Denmark #KremlinThreats #GlobalEconomy #OilTransit #InternationalRelations #SanctionsBypass
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.