10
JUNE
2025
Decisive for the assessment of the actions of the NATO Baltic Sea residents against ships of the so-called Russian Shadow Fleet is first of all the situation under international law. One of the basic principles" of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, as the Director of the Institute for Energy, Environmental and Maritime Law (IfEUS) at the University of Greifswald, Sabine Schlacke, explained last week on a specialist portal, is "the freedom of peaceful passage of ships on the seas and oceans". "The control of ships," slacke notes, "is primarily the responsibility of the flag state". The EU, on the other hand, has "in principle no right of access to ships sailing under a foreign flag" when they "pass the Baltic Sea". 1] This is true in the core even in the territorial waters, which reach up to twelve nautical miles off the coast. There, action may be taken against criminal offenses, states the IfEU director. Whether interventions are allowed "if a ship only abstractly endangers the environment due to its poor condition" is at least doubtful. In the Exclusive Economic Zone (EWC) up to 200 nautical miles off the coast, there are almost no rights of intervention. Nearing residents are likely to generate wind energy or fish there, but not even pursue "espionage or the destruction of submarine cables".
Since a summit meeting they held on the 14th. January in Helsinki [2], the NATO Baltic Sea residents are visibly striving to test the maritime borders with their actions against Russian ships in the Baltic Sea. These limits are apparently deliberately exceeded. An example is the handling of the German authorities with the oil tanker Eventin, which was driving unmaneuverable on the Baltic Sea in January and was then pulled off the coast of Rügen by a German tug. It was repaired there, but did not receive a driver's license: It loaded 100,000 tons of Russian oil, which may not be imported into Germany due to the EU sanctions; Berlin evaluates the towing of the ship off the German coast as an illegal import. At the end of March, the oil tanker was confiscated for violating the sanctions and immediately declared German property.[ 3] The owner of the ship is now suing against it. The actions of the German authorities are classified by experts as at least questionable. It is "in the gray area of international maritime law", says IfEUS director Schlacke. 4] The measure is a "considerable escalation", explained in March Sascha Lohmann, an expert at the Berlin Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP). 5] It is "surprising", said Lohmann, "that the federal government is taking the risk of acting on the basis of a "not quite clear legal situation".
While the legal battle over the Eventin oil tanker is ongoing, some experts are visibly eager to explicitly expand the intervention rights of coastal states. Following the NATO Baltic Sea Summit on 14. On January 1, the then Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that they wanted to not only find out "the legal options" that currently exist in order to "be able to take action against ships" that they "fear" could cause environmental damage; this is attributed to the "shadow fleet". 6] Scholz also confirmed that they wanted to "create additional opportunities within the framework of the EU and national legislation if necessary" so that they could "ado" at any time in the future. At a meeting of the Baltic Sea Council in mid-May, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said: "We have no problems with the responsiveness and capacities" of the NATO navies in the case of interventions against the "shadow fleet", "we have a problem with international law."[ 7] In January, an expert from the Cologne-based consulting company Nexmaris had already demanded that "environmental protection" be assessed as a legal basis for measures against the "shadow fleet": Its ships would have to be "trightly examined in the AWZ, prevented and fixed in the event of justified suspicion of violations at the passage". 8]
The debate is ongoing. Proponents of more aggressive action against Russian ships ignore the fact that international law cannot be changed by the NATO states alone; those who make arbitrary reinterpretations must expect that the affected states will defend themselves, possibly also with recourse to force. It is also ignored that the law applies to all. If you take it out to justify access to Russian ships with idiosyncratic reinterpretations of maritime law, then you will have to expect that other states will do the so. For example, Iran could stop oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz under similar pretexts. China could detach merchant ships in the South China Sea; Turkey would be entitled to stop unpopular merchant ships in the Mediterranean. It would only depend on finding a suitable reason for legitimation.
Meanwhile, the situation continues to escalate. On the 11th In April, the Estonian navy forced an oil tanker on its way to Russia to leave the Estonian AWZ and enter the country's territorial waters. There she set the ship and only released it after more than two weeks. 9] The federal chairman of the Left Party, Jan van Aken, had already praised the goal of such an approach at the beginning of February: "This is so jubilant that the transport costs are so that this oil trade is no longer worthwhile. Putin's war chest is properly emptied.”[ 10] On the 13th On May 1, ships of the Estonian navy again tried to stop a Russian "Shadow Fleet" tanker in the Estonian EWC - an open violation of the freedom of sea that applies there - when Russia reacted sharply and had a Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet fly over the tanker: an open gesture of not to tolerating the violation of the right of free seafaring for ships on their way and to Russia. 11] A little later, Russia defered a Greek oil tanker, which was on its way from the Estonian port of Sillamäe towards the north, crossing Russian territorial waters, for several days.[ 12] The escalation, deliberately initiated by the NATO Baltic Sea residents, continues and is dangerously accting.
The NATO Baltic Sea residents continue to escalate. Sweden has on 1. June began to expand the inspections of foreign ships in the Baltic Sea. 13] Finland also announced last week that it would increase its controls on foreign ships.[ 14] Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, on the other hand, had already stated at the end of May that legal possibilities for the sefogging ships of the "Shadow Fleet" had to be examined.[ 15] This corresponds to what the federal government is already doing on the example of the oil tanker Eventin. Russia's ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, warned that the measures now discussed were openly contrary to international law, led to an "uncontrolled development" of the situation in the Baltic Sea and possibly led to a "direct confrontation".
More on the topic: The Baltic Sea guard and piracy in the Baltic Sea.
[1] Sabine Schlacke: Rights of coastal states are limited. lto.de 06.06.2025.
[2] S. on piracy in the Baltic Sea.
[3] Confiscation confirmed: "Eventin" now German property. ndr.de 28.03.2025.
[4] Sabine Schlacke: Rights of coastal states are limited. lto.de 06.06.2025.
[5] Henning Strüber, Martin Möller: "Eventin" confiscated in front of Rügen: Expert sees "significant escalation". ndr.de 29.03.205.
[6] Press statement by Chancellor Scholz following the NATO Baltic Sea residents' summit on 14. January 2025 in Helsinki.
[7] Baltic Sea Council wants new rules against Russia's shadow fleet. handelsblatt.com 16.05.2025.
[8] Henning Strüber, Martin Möller: Shadow Fleet and Maritime Law: What Baltic States Can (Can) Do - and What Not. ndr.de 20.01.2025.
[9] Russian 'shadow fleet' tanker Kiwala cleared to leave Estonian waters. news.err.ee 26.04.2025.
[10] Left wants more pressure on Putin's shadow fleet. msn.com 01.02.2025.
[11] EDF Headquarters chief: Estonia had no plans to board 'shadow fleet' vessel. news.err.ee 15.05.2025. Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo: Estonia-Russia ship standoff portends a harsher tone on the Baltic Sea. defensenews.com 20.05.2025.
[12] Veronika Uibo: Russian authorities release Green Admire tanker seized after leaving Sillamäe. news.err.ee 19.05.2025.
[13] Theodoros Benakis: Sweden increased inspections to counter Russian shadow fleet in the Baltic Sea. europeaninterest.eu 02.06.2025.
[14] Finland takes on Putin's shadow fleet. msn.com 07.06.2025.
[15] Katerina Alexandridi: Shadow Fleet: Denmark wants to confiscate ships - Russia warns against confrontation. berliner-zeitung.de 05/31/25.