Baltic Sea states call for joint action against Russian shadow fleet

The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), which represents the democratic countries bordering the Baltic Sea, has called for new shipping rules to allow for stronger joint action against Russia's so-called shadow fleet.

Adaptations to international regulations and maritime law are necessary, the foreign ministers of the council's 11 members emphasized after a meeting in Estonia on Friday.

"We have no problem with the capabilities of reaction and physically but we have a problem with international law," said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, who hosted the meeting.

His Polish counterpart, Radosław Sikorski, added: "We need a better regulation that creates a predictable and safe environment for international trade and navies to operate in."

The ministers were referring to an incident on Tuesday in which a Russian fighter jet briefly entered Estonian airspace. The Estonian navy had previously attempted to inspect a tanker without a flag state.

According to Tsahkna, this was the first time Russia had officially demonstrated a connection to the shadow fleet, which includes ships with unclear ownership, used to circumvent Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.

The European Union has already imposed sanctions on hundreds of ships, but the actual fleet size is expected to be much larger.

Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said approximately 84% of Russian crude oil exports, more than one third of Moscow's budget income, pass through the Baltic Sea via the shadow fleet.

In recent months, the Baltic Sea states have tightened surveillance over undersea infrastructure after several suspected acts of sabotage by the shadow fleet on cables and pipelines.

The CBSS, founded in 1992, includes the eight Baltic Sea coastal states of Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Sweden, as well as Iceland, Norway and the EU.

Russia's membership was suspended at the beginning of March 2022 due to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Moscow withdrew from the council in May of the same year.