Kallas: EU military vessels will be able to detain tankers of the Russian shadow fleet in the Mediterranean

Alexey Belogoryev, Research and Development Director of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented on the EU's threats to strengthen measures against the Russian "shadow" fleet to Business FM.

Alexey Belogoryev discusses the expansion of the EU's powers against the shadow fleet and the opening of the Northern Sea Route:

— In fact, these are legal, bureaucratic mechanisms within the EU. The European Commission is looking for legal loopholes, programs, and missions where additional anti-Russian measures can be implemented relatively quickly. In fact, this mission has never had anything to do with Russia. It was created to prevent the smuggling of Libyan oil. The fact that it is now being extended to Russia and to a huge number of states flying the flags of the so—called Russian shadow fleet is a legally questionable decision. In particular, this naval mission operates on the basis of article 110 of the Convention, which has a very limited list of grounds. These are mostly fake documents, and there are also exotic reasons like piracy, the slave trade, and so on, nothing is said about the trade in oil or other goods. But since a number of ships of the shadow fleet do have problems with the flag and, probably, with documents, in some cases Article 110 is applicable to them. But many vessels use the flag quite legally, and such detention is an obvious violation of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. All of this will have far-reaching consequences for global trade. Many countries point to this, and Russia is not the only one concerned about it. This increases the cost of freight and, consequently, the costs associated with transportation and insurance of goods, but this is unlikely to affect the volume of shipments so far.

— No, they are not related to each other. I don't think Christophe de Margerie will go to China. This is economically inefficient. Most likely, it will do the same thing as last year: run between the Kara Sea and Kamchatka, where an LNG transshipment terminal has also been built. But this suggests that the marching conditions and the situation in the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route this year allowed the Arc 7 class tankers, which include Christophe de Margerie, to sail independently in early June instead of the end of June, as a rule, this is due to weather conditions.