Yesterday at 23:54
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has stated that Russian leader Vladimir Putin poses a threat to the Baltic Sea by using a “shadow fleet” to transport oil in circumvention of sanctions.
The statement by the German minister was reported by Spiegel.
Her comments followed an incident on Friday, when the tanker Eventin, carrying 100,000 tons of oil, was involved in an accident in the Baltic Sea near Germany’s Rügen Island.
According to Baerbock, the “shadow fleet” causes significant environmental harm and simultaneously endangers tourism.
“With his appalling deployment of a fleet of rusty tankers, Putin not only circumvents sanctions but also accepts the prospect of halting tourism in the Baltic Sea—whether in the Baltics, Poland, or here in Germany,” Baerbock stated.
The minister emphasized that she and her colleagues from the Baltic region had warned about such a scenario.
“Russia jeopardizes our European security not only with its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine but also through severed cables, displaced border buoys, disinformation campaigns, GPS jamming, and even semi-derelict oil tankers,” Baerbock noted.
A Panama-flagged vessel drifted off the German coast after the accident. Germany deployed a multipurpose vessel and a tugboat to evacuate it.
In October 2024, a small oil tanker, Annika, carrying 640 tons of oil, caught fire less than 5 kilometers from the shore. It was en route from Rostock, Germany, to Travemünde.
It is worth noting that Finnish authorities recently reported technical defects on a tanker suspected of damaging an undersea power cable and several communication lines in the Gulf of Finland. This vessel is also linked to the “shadow fleet.”
Read also: Protests in Slovakia against Robert Fico’s pro-Russian policies
