Honest question (I haven’t spent years studying and thinking about this as you have):
Should Europe, the US (?) Japan, Australia and other democratic countries committed to the rule of law (let’s assume that the U.S. is able to beat back our wannabe authoritarians within) treat the Russian shadow fleet and their sanctions busting, sabotaging of communication lines, and launching of drones as a matter for law enforcement and courts or should we treat the shadow fleet as a matter for spies, counter spies, and covert operations?
Or something in between where countries use “asset forfeiture to seize ships & oil” and accuse everyone on board with espionage and hold them indefinitely.
I’d do it simpler: require all ships to have valid international insurance to operate inside one’s waters. There is no way in or out of the Baltic Sea without transiting through the 12 mile zone or whatever it is of Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.
Stop every commercial ship that doesn’t pass muster re: registration, insurance, whatever is required to be allowed to move goods through their territorial waters. There aren’t that many ships in the Russian shadow fleet and it’ll give the coast guard something to do.
When ships have serious deficiencies, they are invited to turn around or get impounded pending repairs, proper insurance, whatever.
Exactly. Should expand it to the coastal management zone, which can be as large as 200 nautical miles (or more in certain cases). These zones were established by international convention, to manage resources and control pollution. It was initially promoted by Canada, now signed by at least 168 countries.
This would shut down most if not all of the shadow fleet in Baltic waters.
Honest question (I haven’t spent years studying and thinking about this as you have):
Should Europe, the US (?) Japan, Australia and other democratic countries committed to the rule of law (let’s assume that the U.S. is able to beat back our wannabe authoritarians within) treat the Russian shadow fleet and their sanctions busting, sabotaging of communication lines, and launching of drones as a matter for law enforcement and courts or should we treat the shadow fleet as a matter for spies, counter spies, and covert operations?
Or something in between where countries use “asset forfeiture to seize ships & oil” and accuse everyone on board with espionage and hold them indefinitely.
I’d do it simpler: require all ships to have valid international insurance to operate inside one’s waters. There is no way in or out of the Baltic Sea without transiting through the 12 mile zone or whatever it is of Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.
Stop every commercial ship that doesn’t pass muster re: registration, insurance, whatever is required to be allowed to move goods through their territorial waters. There aren’t that many ships in the Russian shadow fleet and it’ll give the coast guard something to do.
When ships have serious deficiencies, they are invited to turn around or get impounded pending repairs, proper insurance, whatever.
Exactly. Should expand it to the coastal management zone, which can be as large as 200 nautical miles (or more in certain cases). These zones were established by international convention, to manage resources and control pollution. It was initially promoted by Canada, now signed by at least 168 countries.
This would shut down most if not all of the shadow fleet in Baltic waters.