The Russian shadow fleet has become a central tool for Putin to circumvent the West’s sanctions, and its importance has increased. The shadow fleet is now transporting 90 percent of Russian crude oil, according to Finnish EPN.
“This is now a kind of cat and rat game between trying to avoid these sanctions through this shadow fleet that Russia has built up, and the sanction packages that come from the western world,” says Niklas Granholm, research leader at the Total Defense Research Institute FOI.
After the recent events where underwater cables have been damaged, NATO has increased its military presence in the Baltic Sea.
At the same time, the Swedish Armed Forces and the Coast Guard are now warn that Russia can use its shadow fleet to stage an environmental disaster.
“This is a ticking environmental bomb,” says Henrik Wachtmeister, energy researcher at Uppsala University and the Foreign Policy Institute.
So what is it going on when the shadow fleet rounds the sanctions – and what can the Western countries do about it? Watch the video in the player above.