Secrets in the Baltic Sea: How Russia’s Shadow Fleet Threatens Sweden

Since these ships do not belong to any armed forces, there is little that NATO can do about them. And while Sweden is now hoping that EU sanctions can help, the solution will be slow. So what to do in the meantime? – asks Elisabeth Braw, a columnist for the publication “Politico” and a colleague of the analytical center “Atlantic Council”.

Sails without insurance and does not use the services of a pilot

In order to reach their destinations, which are often ports in India and China, Russian shadow vessels must pass through the waters of some NATO countries, as much of Russia’s oil is exported through Baltic Sea ports. But these messy, de facto the passage of uninsured tankers through the Baltic Sea poses an environmental risk to NATO members there, and this risk is exacerbated by the fact that shadow vessels are in poor technical condition. Worse still, many of them refuse the services of a pilot when navigating the difficult and narrow Danish Great Belt Strait.

In addition, these shadowy tankers have also recently started lurking off the east coast of Gotland, where they risk transferring oil from one ship to another. They do so just outside the 12-nautical-mile limit that marks the country’s territorial waters, meaning that even though the shadow vessels are in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone, there is little the country can do to keep them out.

Equipment of surveillance

“This is important not only because their presence is provocative and can cause enormous environmental damage, but also because, as the Swedish Navy reported at the end of April, these tankers also carry communications equipment that is not needed on any merchant ship.” They seem to be working as listening stations,” observes the reviewer.

This does not surprise Solveiga Artsman, who has lived in Gotland all her life. In fact, the opposite. S. Artsman remembers that in 2016 a car-carrying ship from St. Petersburg began to regularly turn around at the port of Visby and simply lurk there, even though its cars were not destined for Visby.

“He came very regularly and always stayed for a long time,” she said. – And he always returned and returned to St. Petersburg… I remembered this ship when the shadow ships began to appear here. If you live in Gotland, you get used to strange things.”

The author of the text claims that she later found the car carrier mentioned by S.Artsman – it is still operating. His presence at the harbor of Visby could of course have a logical explanation, but you never know in Gotland. After all, it is strategically the most important island of the Baltic Sea, and now also a NATO island, says the author.

The Lithuanian captain fled to the West

And extraordinary things happened in Gotland long before the current confrontation with Russia.

One in 1961 in April on the day the keeper of the Nėres lighthouse on the southeast coast of the island noticed that an SOS alarm signal was heard from a nearby ship. He immediately called the Coast Guard, and the lighthouse keeper arrived to answer the SOS signal. However, the two men noticed that the ship appeared to have dropped anchor and was out of danger.

About 30 minutes later, two Soviet naval officers approached the lighthouse – the ship’s captain and his subordinate, who had reached the shore in a lifeboat. The junior sailor quickly changed his mind and returned to the ship, but the captain remained and apparently had something to report. Later, when the Coast Guard arrived and the police were called, it turned out that the mysterious captain is Lithuanian citizen Jonas Pleškys, who wanted to escape to the West.

“Yes, this is the same Jonas Pleškys, later immortalized in the movie “The Hunt for Red October,” Elisabeth Braw said.

Nord Stream leased the port

in 2007 A Russian-controlled company appeared on the island of Gotland and asked for permission to exclusively lease the eastern port of Slitė for a few months. S. Artsman, who was a member of the island’s council at the time, objected to the company being allowed to use it, but lost and was condemned as a Russophobe. But today it is clear that taking on that company may not have been the best idea – the company was Nord Stream.

As S. Artsman said, unusual things are indeed happening in Gotland. And spying on the island is even more important now that Gotland belongs to NATO. “The other day, two buses with NATO officials were in Slite and took a picture before leaving,” said S. Artsman. And, of course, Russia wants to know what Sweden and NATO are doing on the largest island in the Baltic Sea.

How to fight oil spills and espionage?

And what about today’s shadow fleet and its threats of ecological disaster and constant espionage? – asks the author of the text.

According to Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, the European Commission has agreed to deal with the shadow fleet in the next round of EU sanctions. But while sanctions against this dangerous fleet are certainly better than no sanctions at all, the process will take a long time: the fleet is believed to consist of more than 1,400 vessels that need to be identified and investigated, as well as their owners. In addition, it is likely that each vessel that is sanctioned will be replaced by another vessel in the shadow fleet. The United States Office of Foreign Assets Control already applies such sanctions, and it is a painstaking and complex job.

But in the meantime, EU countries could take two steps that would quickly affect the shadow fleet: first, through the European Defense Agency’s Maritime Surveillance Project (MARSUR), the EU could identify and investigate all suspected shadow vessels in its member states’ waters.

Then the EU could also take advantage of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. This intergovernmental agreement, signed by Russia (as well as the EU), is a “strategic program of measures and actions aimed at good marine environmental status in order to make the Baltic Sea healthy”. Since ship-to-ship transfers of oil do not comply with the provisions of this agreement, other signatories would have the right to attempt to intervene when such transfers take place.

“These two measures would not stop the shadow fleet – indeed, this destructive armada is impossible to block. However, they would make the fleet somewhat less of a threat to Gotland, even if mysterious events continued to occur in and around the island. Such is the nature that the island is between the West and Russia,” the author of the text summarizes.