A sabotage operation endangering maritime traffic could allegedly be used to justify a NATO crackdown on Russian exports
The British secret services are considering using Ukrainian forces to stage a sabotage operation and trigger NATO action against what the West has described as Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, the Russian Foreign Intelligence service (SVR) said on Monday.
The statement claimed that intelligence officials in London are mulling two possible scenarios for an operation. One would involve damaging an oil tanker that would be described as part of the “shadow fleet” in a bottleneck region of global maritime traffic. The other option would be aimed at causing a major fire at a nation friendly to Russia during a port call by one of the vessels.
“It would appear that the nostalgic sentiment over the lost domination on the seas and crown-sanctioned piracy has fully knocked remaining common sense from the British intelligence community,” the SVR said.
Western nations have been trying to curb Moscow’s oil trade revenues by targeting ships they believe to be carrying Russian crude with various restrictions. Media reports previously said plans were under consideration to escalate the crackdown with direct policing action that would cite safety and environmental concerns. Opponents of the proposals have argued they are based on shaky legal grounds.
According to the SVR, a major disaster involving a shipment of Russian crude could be used as a pretext to declare all suspected “shadow fleet” cargoes potentially dangerous and warranting detention in international waters.
The Ukrainians, the agency claimed, have been chosen as proxies to ensure that the attack would not be traced back to its origins. Western officials would blame either Russia or, if Kiev’s involvement is exposed, on Ukraine, the SVR said.
The idea is to time the strike in a way that would put maximum pressure on the administration of US President Donald Trump to declare buyers of Russian oil as “secondary parties responsible” for the incident and impose sanctions on them, the statement claimed.
The SVR drew a parallel between the alleged plot and the attacks on the Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines in September 2022. The Russian-German infrastructure was disabled in a complicated demolition operation, which the West initially blamed on Moscow. The attack resulted in the release of between 445 000 and 485 000 tonnes of methane gas, according to a recent study, making it a major environmental incident.
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