A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
The captain of an oil tanker detained by French authorities off their Atlantic Coast will stand trial early next year. The captain is a Chinese citizen and was charged earlier this month with refusing to cooperate with French authorities. But his ship, that's of most interest here because French authorities allege the tanker belongs to Russia's so-called shadow fleet and Russian intelligence officers were found on board. Here to explain more about what this is, we've called up Sergey Radchenko. He's a Russia expert and professor at Johns Hopkins. So tell us briefly, what is this Russian shadow fleet? What's it primarily used for?
SERGEY RADCHENKO: Well, so the shadow fleet emerged as a result of the oil price cap that was established by Western nations. The idea, implemented at the end of 2022, entailed that buying Russian oil at a given price and no higher. So it was $60 at the time. And those vessels that were trading above the price cap would not be insured. And of course, insurance is mainly provided by Western companies. So that then led Russia to basically ship their oil to customers in the Global South, in China in so called shadow tankers, which are mostly aging tankers. And that's what they rely on to earn their, you know, hard cash. But also, it seems that the Russians are using those tankers for sabotage operations or launching drones.
MART脥NEZ: Yeah, that is what Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia is doing, using that shadow fleet to launch drones for attacks on Ukraine and also to gather information. So is that true? Is that what you're gathering, too?
RADCHENKO: Well, it may well be. And of course, we've had several incursions by Russian drones, not just from the shadow tanker fleet, if that's what happened, but also just directly across the border. What the Russians are trying to do here is create a sense of uncertainty and fear in Europe and divide public opinion so that part of the public opinion basically calls for a better relationship with Russia. That's, I think, the purpose of those operations.
MART脥NEZ: Now, is using the shadow fleet in this way, maybe a change in Russian tactics in this war against Ukraine and the West?
RADCHENKO: Well, it's clear that they originally resorted to the shadow fleet in order to earn money. Putin needs hard cash to pay his soldiers to import important goods into Russia, including drones, et cetera. So, yes, to a certain extent, it does represent a new departure.
MART脥NEZ: It's been about two months since President Trump met with Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska, setting a deadline to end Russia's war in Ukraine that has long passed. Sergey, what does it mean about the state of the conflict if Russia's shadow fleet continues to operate in this way unabated?
RADCHENKO: Well, it shows that the West has limited leverage. Basically, we thought that the oil price cap might curtail Russian access to the market. And it worked to a certain extent. You know, Russia lost more than $100 billion from the oil price cap. But the reality is Russia is a big country, and it has trading relationship with many other countries in the world, including China and India and Turkey, et cetera. And it's very difficult, as President Trump has found out, to use American economic leverage and western economic leverage to bring Russia around to stop the war in Ukraine.
MART脥NEZ: So essentially, Vladimir Putin really doesn't have any incentive at all right now to stop using this so-called shadow fleet?
RADCHENKO: It's very difficult. I think one possibility is to act more forcefully in intercepting those vessels. But, of course, Europeans have been citing United Nations Convention, which would prevent this kind of action because they say, well, this would be piracy. We cannot stop those tankers. The reality is not much is being done about this.
MART脥NEZ: Sergey Radchenko is a Russia expert and professor at Johns Hopkins. Sergey, thank you very much for the information.
RADCHENKO: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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