Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy studies at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Forbes on the increasing number of attacks on the Russian "shadow fleet” tankers.
It is quite difficult to say who exactly is behind the diversions, Alexey Gromov says. He recalls that investigations into the explosion of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines have led to nothing. And if an international-scale sabotage was not properly investigated, then it is difficult to imagine that anyone would investigate the causes of a tanker disaster in one of the ports or on routes through which several hundred ships move daily, Gromov believes.
Western countries are striving to limit the use of the "shadow fleet" in all possible ways, Gromov notes. The first of them, according to him, is the inclusion of tankers in the blacklist of the United States, Great Britain and the EU. The second is the refusal to provide insurance recognized in the West to tankers carrying Russian oil cargoes. The third method is attempts to detain tankers in the Baltic Sea. And now a fourth one has been added to them, Gromov believes."I have no illusions that the investigation will end with any result, reveal the real culprits who will be punished," the expert says. — But the fact remains that there are indeed proven cases of attacks, in fact terrorist attacks, against tankers that have been spotted in Russian ports. These are the first cases in many years. Therefore, suspicions are justified that we are talking about part of a hybrid war against the Russian "shadow fleet", which includes sanctions restrictions, inspections of ships, their stopping by customs services of different countries and direct sabotage."
Subscribe for updates
and be the first to know about new publications