{"id":2228302,"date":"2024-04-23T16:02:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T20:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russias-shadow-fleet-sweden-warns-allies-oil-tankers-in-the-baltic-used-for-espionage\/"},"modified":"2024-04-23T16:04:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T20:04:49","slug":"russias-shadow-fleet-sweden-warns-allies-oil-tankers-in-the-baltic-used-for-espionage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/russias-shadow-fleet-sweden-warns-allies-oil-tankers-in-the-baltic-used-for-espionage\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden alerts allies about Russian oil tankers in Baltic Sea used for spying"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frussias-shadow-fleet-sweden-warns-allies-oil-tankers-in-the-baltic-used-for-espionage%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2228302&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Russia has \u200bdeployed a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/treasury-officials-tout-success-of-russian-oil-price-cap-even-as-profits-rise\/\" title=\"Russian oil price cap hailed as successful by Treasury officials despite rising profits.\">shadow fleet<\/a>&#8221; of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iran-continues-nuclear-program-aims-to-enrich-uranium-to-20\/\" title=\"Iran continues nuclear program, aims to enrich uranium to 20%\">oil tankers<\/a> in the\u200b Baltic Sea \u2063for evading sanctions and espionage, as disclosed by a top Swedish military official. The\u2064 vessels&#8217; suspicious equipment\u2064 suggests ulterior motives beyond fishing activities. Sweden advocates for EU \u2064sanctions on these vessels due to the environmental and security risks associated with\u200b their operations.\u2064 Russia&#8217;s &#8220;shadow \u2062fleet&#8221; of oil tankers in \u2063the\u2062 Baltic \u200dSea aims \u2062to \u200bevade sanctions and engage in espionage, revealed by a Swedish military official. Suspicious gear \u2062on these vessels indicates hidden agendas beyond fishing. Sweden calls for EU \u200dsanctions on the \u200bfleet \u2063to address environmental and security concerns.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/Russia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Russia<\/a> has deployed a \u201cshadow fleet\u201d of oil tankers in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/Baltic-Sea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Baltic Sea<\/a> to circumvent economic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/russia-sanctions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>sanctions<\/a> and also engage in espionage, according to a top Swedish military official.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are finding antennas and masts that typically do not belong to, for example, fishing vessels, so it is clear that we feel that there are sometimes other objectives associated with their activities in terms of what is moving at sea,\u201d\u00a0Royal Swedish Navy chief Ewa Skoog Haslum <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurointegration.com.ua\/eng\/news\/2024\/04\/23\/7184413\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"told\">told<\/a> Swedish media. <\/p>\n<p>Haslum\u2019s warning adds a new dimension to Sweden\u2019s recent push for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/European-Union\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"European Union\">European Union<\/a> to target the vessels in a new round of sanctions. In the years since the launch of the full-scale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/war-in-Ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"war in Ukraine\">war in Ukraine<\/a>, Russia has turned to a fleet of an estimated 1,400 vessels to disguise energy exports from Western regulators, and Swedish officials see the vessels as a ballooning threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will all be affected if there were a major problem arising from a collision or oil leakage from one of these ships, which also in many cases are not seaworthy, or very close to not being seaworthy,\u201d Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/apr\/18\/swedish-foreign-minister-tobias-billstrom-unsafe-russian-oil-fleet-baltic-sea-environmental-catastrophe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><em>  Guardian<\/em><\/a>  in mid-April. \u201cThe fact that they are transporting oil, which fuels Russian aggression against\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0is bad enough. But even worse is the fact that Russia doesn\u2019t care one bit, apparently, about the fact that these ships could cause major environmental havoc in seas, which if you take the Baltic Sea is sensitive as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Ministers of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/despite-insistence-by-democrat-politicians-and-medical-elites-empirical-evidence-does-not-conclusively-show-that-masks-reduce-the-spread-of-covid\/\" title=\"Despite Insistence by Democrat Politicians and Medical Elites, Empirical Evidence DOES NOT Conclusively Show that Masks Reduce the Spread of COVID\">foreign affairs<\/a> from left: Lithuania\u2019s Gabrielius Landsbergis, Estonia\u2019s Margus Tsahkna, Sweden\u2019s Tobias Billstrom, Norway\u2019s Espen Barth Eide, Latvia\u2019s Andzejs Vilumsons, Director of Foreign Policy Denmark\u2019s Lisbet Zilmer-Johns, Director General of International Affairs Iceland\u2019s Maria Jonsdottir, and Ukraine\u2019s Ambassador to Sweden Andrii Plakhotniuk pose for a picture during a visit to the Gotland regiment P18 after a foreign and security policy meeting of the Nordic-Baltic circle in Visby, Sweden, on April 10, 2024. (Fredrik Sandberg\/TT News Agency via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Those vessels have long played an important role in sanctions evasion for rogue regimes such as North Korea, but analysts worry that they could figure into Russia\u2019s \u201cgrey zone\u201d aggression against NATO allies in the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlready a risk when the fleet was relatively small and primarily serviced Iran and Venezuela, its explosive growth since early 2022 means it\u2019s likely to cause far more extensive harm to other ships (and their owners and insurers) and to countries in whose waters it sails,\u201d the Atlantic Council\u2019s Elisabeth Braw wrote in January. \u201cThe shadow fleet, in fact, seems intended not just to transport goods to and from Russia but to cause harm to other countries. \u2026 Countries that don\u2019t utilize the shadow fleet but whose waters the vessels use are the real victims of the shadow activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Braw assessed that \u201csome four dozen incidents involving suspected shadow vessels have already taken place.\u201d Haslum, for her part, added that those incidents could give vessels that purport to be in duress an opportunity to gain access to a port.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is happening now due to the sanctions against Russia could become both a security and an environmental tragedy,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n<p>Billstrom, who represents the newest member of the NATO alliance, said this week that Stockholm will press the European Union for \u201can import ban on liquefied natural gas as well as measures to curb the Russian shadow fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A top Swedish military official reveals that Russia employs covert oil tankers in the Baltic Sea to evade sanctions and conduct espionage. Unusual antennas and masts on these vessels raise suspicions, indicating their dual roles beyond legitimate activities like fishing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2743,"featured_media":2228303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23295338194476.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2228302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP23295338194476.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2743"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2228302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2228302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2228303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2228302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2228302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2228302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}