Russia Prepares Armed Convoys for Shadow Fleet, Threatens to Break Baltic Blockade

Russia is preparing to deploy naval warship convoys and armed “mobile fire groups” to protect its shadow fleet from international pressure, Nikolai Patrushev told Russian media, according toThe Moscow Times report on March 19.

Patrushev, the Chairman of the Maritime Board and assistant to the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, claimed an “unprecedented campaign” has been launched against Russian shadow fleet tankers and container ships. To counter this, the Kremlin is authorizing port captains to place armed units on vessels and is considering full military escorts.

“The possibility of requesting the accompaniment of Russian-flagged vessels by mobile fire groups through port captains is being considered. The placement of special protective equipment on ships is also being worked out,” Patrushev stated, according to The Moscow Times.

The call for militarized shipping follows a March 3 attack on the LNG tanker Arctic Metagaz in the Mediterranean, which Moscow blames on Ukrainian sea drones launched from the Libyan coast. Patrushev dismissed the term “shadow fleet” as a legal fiction, warning that Russia is prepared to use its Navy to break “illegal” blockades in the Baltic Sea.

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“If this situation cannot be resolved by peaceful means, the blockade will be broken and liquidated by the Navy,” he warned, adding that Russia may start “inspecting” European-flagged vessels to see what they are carrying.

French authorities have already confirmed the presence of armed personnel from the FSB-linked  Moran Security Group aboard the detained tanker Boracay, signaling that the militarization of Russia’s energy exports is already underway, The Moscow Times wrote.

The Kremlin spent the last two years building a massive shadow fleet of aging tankers to bypass Western oil sanctions and price caps and maintain the flow of war funding. While these vessels initially operated under flags of convenience to avoid detection, intensifying US and EU sanctions forced Moscow to rely on increasingly complex smuggling networks centered in the UAE.

Currently, as the West cracks down on these clandestine operations, Russia is going from legal evasion to direct military protection.

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