Swedish security officials report that hundreds of tankers are traveling from St. Petersburg to India or China. Russia is allegedely circumventing Western sanctions by navigating oil shipments past the Swedish island of Gotland. Residents there feel threatened by the so-called "shadow ships" for both political and environmental reasons.
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00:00White sandy beaches, clear waters and plenty of sunshine.
00:04The Swedish island of Gotland is affectionately called the pearl of the Baltic Sea.
00:08But this Baltic paradise is under threat from its large neighbor to the east.
00:14People in Gotland have always been a little bit afraid to Russia.
00:24Sweden's on the alert due to huge oil tankers that have been moving along Gotland's coast.
00:29They come from St. Petersburg, bound for India or China.
00:34They're called shadow ships because Russia uses them to bypass the western sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine.
00:45Solveig Atzmann was a politician on Gotland for many years.
00:49And she isn't only worried about a possible shipwreck.
00:54I think there are more ships from Russia than we know.
01:00Shadow boats, it's not good at all.
01:04We must think of the environment and the sea.
01:08And oil in the sea is so dangerous.
01:13Swedish security experts believe that Putin is using this shadow fleet to conduct oil trades to bolster his war chest.
01:20Transporting oil to countries that aren't adhering to the sanctions.
01:25A recent study estimates that between 600 and 2000 tankers are currently in operation.
01:31Some of them leased, many dilapidated.
01:35Experts have called it a ticking time bomb.
01:39Shadow tankers, they are old.
01:42They are registered in countries with much less control and lower standards.
01:49The crew is usually less qualified.
01:54And the ownership is obscure and they lack credible insurance.
01:59So the risk for an oil spill, an accident, is much higher with this shadow fleet.
02:06Around 80% of Russian crude oil is supposedly being transported across the Baltic Sea.
02:12Directly past the Swedish island of Gotland.
02:15Which has a key strategic position for both the West and Russia.
02:20The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is just under 300 kilometers from Gotland.
02:27Russia has also shored up its economic influence in Gotland.
02:31With Putin's state company Gazprom most recently renting a part of the industrial port of Sliter to store pipes for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.
02:40I think those who were very much liked that Nord Stream was coming here, they don't talk about it I think.
02:56I think they feel ashamed because they were so stupid and naive and greedy.
03:02Solveig Atzmann spent years on Gotland's municipal council fighting against the gas project.
03:08And thus Russian influence.
03:11She says the entire Russian infrastructure on the Swedish island is now a problem.
03:16Such as the extra long key for the pipes.
03:22You build that thing in the water you must have, what do you say, maps of the harbor.
03:32And the bottom and so they know everything here.
03:36If you have Sliter you have Gotland, if you have Gotland you have Sweden.
03:42Sweden joined NATO just a few months ago.
03:46So now if Russia were to attack the Baltic states, all members of the alliance would be obliged to defend them.
03:53The island of Gotland could play an important role in fending off a potential Russian attack, according to military experts in Stockholm.
04:01I guess Gotland and the Baltic Sea offers more opportunities for NATO in a way that it gives some added perhaps strategic depth.
04:12One option would of course be to use the choke point for Russian transport to and through the Baltic Sea to Russia and St. Petersburg.
04:23And a choke point would mean that in the worst case scenario the West could cede off those kind of transports making it more difficult for Russia to exchange goods and transport other things like troops.
04:37The open passage is currently important for Russia's shadow ships.
04:41But Sweden has begun taking the Gotland situation seriously.
04:45As these images from a NATO military exercise a few weeks ago show.
04:49Soon up to 4,500 Swedish soldiers are to be stationed here.
04:55We must defend ourselves and we can't be so naive anymore.
05:01It's necessary. If we will have the paradise we must have the military.
05:08A militarized paradise? Not an easy situation for Gotland's residents who hold on to hope that a real intervention will not be needed.
05:19NATO.