Kingdom of Denmark vs the Shadow Fleet

Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, two-thirds of the Danish kingdom's income came from taxes paid by every ship passing through the @resund (‘The Sound’) Strait, the only exit from the Baltic Sea.

- Gwynne Dyer

Each ship had to declare its cargo — and if the Danes thought they were undervaluing it, Denmark had the right to buy it at the declared price.

The Danes don’t do that anymore, but they still don’t like to be jerked around. They were quite cross when unidentified drones forced them to shut down their airports on several occasions late last month, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that Russian involvement could not be ruled out.

She was being diplomatic. That was the week when Russian drones also violated Polish and Romanian airspace. Ms Fred-eriksen had good reason to suspect that the drones harassing Denmark were coming from a Russian-chartered ship off the Danish coast, so she or one of her aides came up with a devastating response.

This week, Royal Danish Navy ships began stopping and checking ships in the @resund Strait. Not just any ships. Old oil tankers flying flags of convenience from low-rent countries that are heading for the North Sea and thence into the open Atlantic. Ships that belong to the “shadow fleet” transporting Russian oil to India, China and other Asian countries.