Russia’s Shadow Fleet Expands in Baltic Waters
Russia’s shadow fleet, operating under Moscow’s orders but nominally registered in other countries, has become even more aggressive in Baltic waters than before. Danish pilots, who see the ships’ behavior up close like no one else, report increasingly troubling practices. It’s no surprise that European leaders are taking no chances during their summit in Copenhagen in the first days of October.
The infamous Pushpa, an unflagged tanker believed to be run by Russia, has been making trouble in the Baltic again. French authorities have just detained the ship to investigate whether it’s been violating sanctions, but its activities may be worse than that. Danish authorities suspect that some of the drones that forced a temporary closure of the Copenhagen airport in late September were fired from the ship.
Shadow Fleet’s Gray-Zone Aggression
Russia is pioneering new forms of gray-zone aggression, as passengers traveling to or from Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport and Oslo’s Gardermoen airport had to witness on Sept. 23. That day, both airports were forced to close for several hours after drones appeared nearby. Dozens of flights had to be canceled or diverted.
But where did the drones come from? Danish authorities swiftly identified three vessels that may have served as launchpads: a freighter flagged in Russia, another freighter partly crewed by Russians—and the Pushpa. Danish investigative journalists subsequently reported that the Norway-domiciled firm that owns Oslo Carrier 3, the partly Russian-crewed ship, has a branch in Kaliningrad that has long worked with the Russian paramilitary outfit RSB Group.
The Pushpa‘s Troubled History
The Pushpa, in turn, is no stranger to the Baltic Sea or the Danish Straits. It makes regular journeys between Russia’s Baltic Sea ports and the countries that buy Russian oil transported by the shadow fleet. Before it was detained in France, the ship was en route to the Indian port of Vadinar. The Pushpa is sanctioned by Western governments, and in April, it was even sailing without flag registration, perhaps shipping’s most cardinal sin. (It was using the name Kiwala; name changes are common among shadow vessels.)
On April 11, as the Kiwala was sailing in the Gulf of Finland, Estonian authorities detained it on the unsurprising grounds that it was sailing without flag registration. When the tanker arrived in port, the Estonians identified a remarkable 40 deficiencies. Two weeks later, after most of the faults had been fixed and Djibouti had said it would temporarily provide flag registration, they released the tanker. Since then, the infamous ship has kept sailing through the Baltic Sea, using a variety of flags. At the time of writing, it appeared to be using the flag of Malawi, though shipping databases list this as a false registration.
Danish Pilots Sound Alarm
Russian shadow vessels are becoming ever-more brazen on their journeys in and out of the Baltic Sea. That doesn’t just mean sailing without proper insurance, without a flag, or in such poor state that an anchor may fall out and damage undersea cables. At times, it also involves turning down pilotage in the tricky Danish Straits.
“The number of ships not taking pilots is increasing,” Bjarne Skinnerup told me.
Skinnerup is a mariner who has spent years navigating the Baltic Sea. He warns that this trend could have disastrous consequences for navigation and safety.
Original Article: Russia’s Shadow Fleet Is Doing More Than Sanctions-Busting — Foreignpolicy