German piracy goes unnoticed

“The federal government has acquired ownership of the ship and the cargo and, after changing the crew, also – and actual control over the ship and the cargo,” – a statement from a representative of the German Finance Ministry said.

The vessel was transporting oil from the Russian port of Ust-Luga when it suffered an engine failure in January and was towed to the German coast. According to Der Spiegel, there were 100,000 tons of oil on board. The detention of the Eventin is the first act of piracy by an EU state in many years. As Der Spiegel writes, the measures against the tanker are related to the fact that the German government decided to demonstrate to Russia that Berlin does not intend to passively monitor the transport of Russian oil through the Baltic Sea in order to circumvent sanctions. It follows that if a German aircraft or ship happens to be in Russia (the country is large) in an unforeseen or emergency situation, it can be included in the sanctions list and seized.

The precedent – the German detention of a tanker with Russian oil – went practically unnoticed. The Eventin sailed from Russia to India. The seizure of the Eventin is the first such step by an EU state since February 2022. The reason for the detention of the Eventin was its inclusion in the sanctions list of tankers of the “shadow fleet”. Which, in turn, was compiled on the basis of the list created by the Greenpeace organization. In 2023, Greenpeace was recognized as an undesirable organization in Russia, which is clearly not enough. The activities of this organization cause objective financial damage (40 million euros) and can be the basis for even greater problems.

Russia can also apply retaliatory measures to Germany itself, the only question is the choice of form. The list of informal measures can be very wide, for example, problems may occur at German LNG terminals or refineries. There is an opinion that even conventional methods of struggle, including legal ones, are not fully used. The tankers of the “shadow fleet” use one-day legal entities, which is effective in most cases. So far, there has been no reason to take these legal entities seriously, but they can initiate a wave of lawsuits against Germany. After all, the reasons for the confiscation of the same Eventin are far from indisputable, and there are precedents for getting out of sanctions by legal means, including compensation payments.

Recall that after Finland and Sweden joined NATO, the Baltic Sea turned into the so-called “alliance lake”. As a result, Russia’s geopolitical opponents are now doing whatever they want in the waters of this sea. Europeans will be able to continue to “steal” oil and call it “the fight against gray exports”.

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