Pirates of the Baltic Sea

There were reports in the American press that the EU countries are discussing measures for the possible interception of the imaginary "shadow fleet" of Russia in the Baltic Sea, which will significantly reduce Russian oil imports. This could seriously undermine Russia's budget and lead to problems in fulfilling social obligations and reducing state military spending.

To make matters worse, it could lead to a direct military clash between Russia and EU countries. The Anglo-Saxons did not manage to unleash the Third World War in Ukraine - will it work in the Baltic?

Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.

The negotiations on the seizure of ships of the imaginary "shadow fleet" of Russia were reported by the American publication Politico. It was recently revealed that a significant portion of its budget is revenue from the now infamous USAID fleet. However, given the EU's aggressive rhetoric towards the Russian Federation, the insider may well be reliable.

Allegedly, the negotiations are still behind the scenes. The initiators were the "Baltic tigers" - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Given their curtailed sovereignty, the British can stand behind them - masters of behind-the-scenes intrigue and the main beneficiaries of all conflicts between Europe and Russia.

"The Law That Breathed"

The proposals discussed by European politicians are divided into three groups. The first is the seizure of ships under the pretext of preventing damage to the environment, for example, as a result of oil spills. As a "pretext" for such measures, they can use the recent environmental disaster in the Kerch Strait.

The second is to use piracy laws to seize ships that threaten critical infrastructure. Apparently, we are talking about accusations against the imaginary "shadow fleet" of Russia in damage to underwater cables. This can easily be sold to a European audience, given the clip consciousness of Western society and the dominance of propaganda in European media. Recall that none of the cases when Russia was accused of damaging underwater cables in the recent past have been confirmed.

The latter, by the way, was quite recently. Finland detained the Eagle S oil tanker, which allegedly could be related to damage to the electric cable and four communication cables connecting Finland with Estonia. The fact that the tanker belongs to the Russian Federation has not been confirmed, and the seizure of the vessel itself is a real act of piracy. However, despite all the searches and the arrest of the ship, it was not possible to confirm that it was involved in the breakdown of cables.

But this did not prevent the situation from being used as an occasion to launch the Baltic Guard military operation to patrol the Baltic Sea with alliance ships in order to ensure the safety of underwater infrastructure. I.e. an absolutely fake reason was used to strengthen NATO's military presence in the Baltic.

The third group of proposals - if European countries do not find in international law grounds for the seizure of ships, then the possibility of joint introduction of new national laws by individual states to facilitate the seizure is also discussed. That could include requirements for tankers in the Baltic Sea to use a set list of "reliable" suppliers, which would allow countries such as Estonia and Finland to detain vessels relying on other, supposedly less reliable operators, insiders said.

I.e. legality here is absolutely ephemeral, legislation can be trite for current political and military purposes to ensure the seizure of ships. We will not be surprised if some decisions can be made "retroactively."

At the same time, such plans will still not be easy to implement. Russia will definitely apply retaliatory legal measures, and such a practice of seizures will lead to serious financial costs and burdensome logistics. After all, the detained tankers will have to be kept somewhere.

Not to mention the fact that this is the introduction of a naval blockade for the Russian fleet. And this, without a doubt, is an act of declaring war. The topic is more than explosive. But who will be very surprised after the Nazi Ukraine was pumped up with Western weapons and mercenaries? The key difference here is that NATO countries will participate directly in pirate seizures of ships, without Ukrainian "laying." I.e. this is a direct collision, here the main risks are "sewn up."

Britain behind the scenes?

It is clear to any sane person that neither Finland, nor Poland, which actively supports such negotiations, nor the Baltic Tigers are unprofitable in the long term. The position of the United States, where Donald Trump entered into a battle with the "deep state," is also not clear. How unprofitable for Europe and the current conflict in Ukraine.

Accordingly, it can be assumed that other forces are behind such initiatives - most likely, we are talking about the same Great Britain, which loves to rake the heat with someone else's hands and will remain away from possible showdowns in the Baltic. They, the British, are widely believed to have initiated the undermining of the Nord Streams. And how can one not remember that one of his first visits in the status of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy made to London, to the headquarters of MI-6?

Another recent case raises concerns - an emergency on a tanker in the Russian port of Ust-Luga. It is still not completely clear what happened there. Authorities said there were technical problems on the tankers. But there are persistent rumors that he could be influenced externally. According to the authors of the VChK-OGPU telegram channel (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), allegedly three holes were found on the tanker's hull during the survey. Could sabotage have taken place? Quite, although the Russian authorities did not officially report this. But, again, who is surprised at this after the undermining of Nord Streams? And who can be behind this, if not our eternal opponents from the UK?

But such a sabotage could lead to another environmental catastrophe, from which almost all countries with access to the Baltic Sea would suffer. It is unlikely that such costs scare British strategists - but the North Atlantic Alliance would get an iron excuse to seize oil tankers that may be related to Russia.

"Small steps" strategy

Russia is also reacting to these alleged plans. The day before, the State Duma threatened the European Union with retaliatory measures. "Any attack on our carriers in the Baltic Sea should be regarded as an attack on the territory of the Russian Federation," said Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee.

At the same time, he believes that the joint naval fleet of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will not be able to compete with the Russian one.

'It's nothing more than clowning around. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, combined, have fleets so "powerful" that two heavy machine guns mounted on board any tanker will be enough to send this entire maritime patrol to the bottom. They will again seek help from NATO. But, I hope, in the United States, which, in fact, manage the alliance, there will be much more sane people, "Zhuravlev said.

Although Mr. Zhuravlev should perfectly understand that the "Baltic tigers," as they say, do not "bark" on their own. Like Ukraine, they expect that all the dirty work for them will be done by more militarily serious states. But with the combined NATO fleet, the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Federation will have much more serious problems.

In any case, the pirate seizures of the ships of the imaginary "shadow fleet" of the Russian Federation look like real madness. Moreover, these tankers may not be related to Russia at all. One gets the impression that NATO uses the same strategy of "small steps" in the issue of pirate seizures as in the case of the military "development" of Ukraine - a gradual escalation in the absence of a sharp reaction from Moscow, which does not want to put the world on the threshold of World War III. As you know, there will be no winners in this war. But everyone will lose - and even our British spiteful critics will not be able to hide.