In the waters of the Estonian economic zone inspections of suspicious Russian tankers have been carried out since June this year. – said Jaak Viilipu, head of the maritime department at the Estonian Ministry of Climate. Inspections include not only “radio calls“but also physical inspection of units.
Over 200 inspections in the Baltic Sea. Estonia controls Russia's 'shadow fleet'
– In most cases, ship captains cooperated with the authorities and provided the required information, a the units' documents were fully compliant with the regulations – the official said in an interview with public radio ERR. Conducted in the last six months a total of over 240 inspections.
In one case, he revealed, the ship's commander did not respond to calls and refused to allow the services to board. However, a week later he voluntarily handed over documents confirming the unit's insurance. – It shows that she is control is working and these types of pressure measures should continue to be maintained – he added, emphasizing that in the current situation, when ships operating on routes from Russia they almost no longer visit European ports, data on their technical condition and insurance are not updated in accordance with current standard procedures.
“Shadow Fleet” earns money for the Russian war machine
In June, in Porvoo, Finland, at a meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, an intergovernmental forum for cooperation between the Baltic and Scandinavian countries and German i Polishit was found that “The shadow fleet poses a security, environmental and geopolitical threat.”
The main Russian oil terminals are located in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland in the St. Petersburg region, in Primorsk and Ust-Luga. Russian “shadow tankers”, not covered by Western insurance, play a significant role in circumventing sanctions imposed by the Group G7.
They transport oil to customers in other countries who are willing to pay Russia more than the agreed maximum price, i.e. $60. per barrel, which is significant support for the Russian war machine in Ukraine.
According to the Estonian ministry, in previous years, almost all maritime transport across the Baltic Sea was covered by insurance issued by companies from Western countries, currently there are insurance policies from third countries, apart from Russia, also from China, Indiaor former Soviet republics such as Kirgistanu.