Russian fighter jet protects shadow fleet - Moscow premiere

Russian fighter jet protects shadow fleet - Moscow premiere

incident in Estonian airspace

According to the Estonian defense forces, the Estonian military contacted the unregistered Tanker Jaguar on May 13, the early that time of Great Britain was sanctioned to carry out. At that moment, a Russian SU 35 fighter plane near the ship within the Estonian airspace flew. Finally the military escorted the tanker from Estonian waters.

Russia's new strategy

"This is something very new," said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna on Thursday at a NATO meeting in Turkey. Russia has now "officially connected to the so -called shadow fleet," he added. Ed Arnold, a high -ranking research employee at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), also said: "That seems to be a fundamental change in the thinking of the Kremlin."

The shadow fleet and its effects

The "shadow fleet", which has grown to an estimated hundreds of ships, has no official connections to Russia and includes many old, poorly maintained ships. In some cases, these have caused Environmental damage and were related to damage on important lower seaside cables in front of the Baltic coast. Russia rejects any responsibility for the damage. The tankers, many of them with non -transparent owner structures, transport Russian oil for export to avoid western sanctions, which makes them themselves the goal of new sanctions against Moscow.

reactions to military actions

The first use of "military actions" on the part of Russia in response to economic sanctions "is proof of the level of the threat that we face on the eastern flank of NATO," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot to journalists in Turkey.

Video recordings from the Jaguar bridge show a radio message from the Estonian authorities in which the ship is asked to change its course while Estonian military ships and aircraft near the tanker can be seen. CNN has verified the details of the film material, which was shared online by Margarita Simonyan, the editor -in -chief of the Russian state media company RT.

In another scene, a Russian SU-35 jet passed in front of the tanker, who was previously known as an argent, according to ship registration documents and information from the British government. In response to this, Portuguese F-16 jets that are involved in a NATO mission in Estonia were immediately called to the area to monitor the Russian aircraft.

NATO reacts to the Russian aggression

The jets are part of a reinforced NATO presence in Northern Europe since Russia's extensive invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Arnold von Rusi found: "What the Kremlin is likely to try to put pressure on the NATO countries in the hope that what happened on Tuesday is unsettled."

"There will be voices within NATO that will say concerned: 'Do we really want to risk a broader conflict with Russia because of a ship?" "

reactions to larger NATO presence

For the Estonians, the incident with Russian jet is proof that the western sanctions have an effect. The Estonian defense forces said: "The incident shows that monitoring and sanctioning the shadow fleet is effective and such efforts have to be reinforced."

While CNN was not able to find a registered owner of the Jaguar, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to any request from CNN. The Kremlin has also not reacted to allegations that it uses a "shadow fleet".

In January, NATO started the "Baltic Sentry" initiative to strengthen its military presence in the Baltic Sea after repeated incidents occurring in which ships caused damage to Unseischer infrastructure. "We see the incident in response to Baltic Sentry," NATO spokesman Colonel Martin O’Donnell told CNN. "Russia's destabilizing actions will not prevent us from acting as part of international law to maintain maritime security, security and freedom of navigation."

new sanctions against Russia

The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced on Friday that a new sanction package could possibly be passed on Tuesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin did not take part in the talks with Ukraine in Turkey last week. Merz had previously explained that Russia's "shadow fleet" - which "operated permanently with up to 300 ships in the Baltic Sea" - would be specifically affected in this package.

In a possible retribution step, a Greek -obsessed oil tanker, the Green Admire, was recorded on Sunday of Russia, while on a course agreed by Russian water on a course agreed by Estonia, Finland and Russia, as the Estonian Foreign Minister published on X

CNN asked the owners of the ship and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to comment. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not answer.

Since June last year, the Estonian authorities have carried out more than 450 controls on ships in the Baltic Sea waters controlled by Tallinn. This includes the Baltic Sea, one of the main channels for the Russian overseas trade.