Moscow's new strategy: preparing the "ghost fleet"
To circumvent EU sanctions, Russia is already preparing a new "ghost fleet" to ensure that the products covered by the sanctions can still be exported around the world. This is not the first time the Kremlin has employed such a strategy.
Just last year we learned that the "ghost fleet" was preparing to circumvent Western sanctions. The European Commission has already imposed restrictions on crude oil in December 2022 and on other refined petroleum products in February 2023. Despite the ban, the Kremlin managed to find another way to trade crude oil.
Measures approved by the EU include a ban on exports of Russian liquefied natural gas and measures against ships supporting the war.
A package of measures bans all future investment in liquefied natural gas projects under construction in the Vladimir Putin-led country, as well as related exports. It also includes a ban on the use of EU ports for transshipment of Russian liquefied natural gas and its import into the EU.
According to the EU in 2022, the embargo on Russian oil was to hit "the heart of the Kremlin's war financing machine." This is a strategy by which the Europeans want to punish Russia's exchequer and the invading country's exports. In its first list, the EU already included 27 ships.
(SR and MaSi for Tagtik/Photo: Unsplash)
