The growing threat from Russia's shadow fleet

European countries worry that the sanctions-busting 'ghost ships' are now being deployed in grey-zone disruptions.

- Jonathan Eyal Global Affairs Correspondent

Is it called the Pushpa, Kiwala or the Boracay? Which country owns it? And what is it doing here? These are the questions that prompted the French authorities on Oct 1 to order their military to board and seize a large oil tanker sailing near France's territorial waters.

"There were some very serious offences committed by (the ship's) crew, which justify the current judicial procedure," French President Emmanuel Macron explained soon after the tanker was boarded.

Yet just two days after it was seized and its crew arrested, the ship's captain a Chinese national was back on board. And the 244m-long tanker was allowed to continue on its way without any further public explanation, let alone the "judicial procedure" that Mr Macron threatened. It is now approaching the Suez Canal, on its way to the Indian Ocean.

Although nobody in France now wants to talk about this episode, there is little mystery about the background to the story.

The ship was flying the flag of Benin, a small country in West Africa famous for being the home of the voodoo religion. Benin has neither ownership nor much connection to the tanker; it merely collects a fee for the use of its flag. The tanker was carrying Russian oil, seeking to evade the Western sanctions imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. And it was long followed by Western intelligence agencies.

Welcome to the murky world of Russia's "shadow fleet", a collection of rusty and often not seaworthy tankers smuggling Russian oil right under the noses of Western governments, who claim to be scandalised by such contraband activities, yet until recently did absolutely nothing to stop them.

However, the Western approach to Russia's shadow fleet is about to change, primarily because it is becoming clear that Russia's ghost ships do more than just oil smuggling.

AN OLD PRACTICE