The Australian government has punished a series of ships related to Russia and say they operate under “deceptive practices”.
The 60 ships that were sanctioned on Wednesday could be asked to leave Australia or refuse access to a certain port or place along the coastline of the country.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement: “The sanctions strengthen the consistent dedication of Australia to guarantee Russia, and those who make his illegal invasion of Ukraine possible have consequences.”
Russia’s shadow fleet has been examined on suspicious activity from European countries, especially in the Baltic Sea, in the last 12 months.
So what is the fleet, and how important are the sanctions?
What is the Russian shadow fleet?
The shadow fleet of Russia is not as high -tech or secret as his name could imply.
It consists largely of aging Russian oil vessels, the number of unknown but an estimated hundreds, used to avoid sanctions and to act goods to help Russia in the midst of the war in Ukraine.
The Russian government has had to deal with thousands of sanctions – more than 1400 from Australia alone – because the Ukraine invaded more than three years ago.
In 2022, the G7 countries and the European Union imposed a price limit of $ 60 on the export of Russian oil. It prohibits Western financial institutions and logistics companies to carry out transactions above the limit, which largely influence Russia’s ability to act.
In response to a shadow fleet of ships, Russia started to operate his oil to various ports around the world where it could sell above the purchase hood.
Joseph Camilleri, professor Emeritus at La Trobe University, who specializes in international relations and oil policy, said SBS News that the fleet works under different flags to circumvent limitations by circumventing the West and having Russian export flow.
“The Panama flag is often used by a number of countries when they do not want to operate ships under their own flags,” he said.
“That creates the type of veil behind which governments, for whatever reason, do not want to use their own shipping to bypass different obstacles that stand in the way. And this is what Russia is currently doing.”
What risk is the fleet?
There is a growing concern in Europe. The ships brought on the blacklist do more than the actions of oil.
Last December Finland grabbed an oil tanker in connection with Russia and investigated damage to power cables that bear electricity between Finland and Estonia.
The Finnish authorities discovered anchorages that extend over tens of kilometers on the seabed, in what they claim that they were sabotage.
More recently, in May, the Polish army is said to have intercepted a Russian ship in the Baltic Sea with “suspicious maneuvers” near power cables that connect Poles and Sweden.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk van Polen said on social media: “After the effective intervention of our army, the ship sailed to one of the Russian ports.”
What is the impact of the sanctions of Australia?
The move came when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met the Ukrainian President Volodyymyr Zenskyy and other world leaders at the G7 meetings in Canada.
Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union also announced sanctions about the Russian shadow fleet, of which Wong said it would “help to starve the Russian war economy of oil income”.
In a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Zenskyy emphasized the need for G7 countries to coordinate sanctions against Russian energy, bank sectors, shadow fleet and military-industrial complex.
Anton Moiseienko is a senior teacher at the Australian National University Law School, specialized in the impact of economic sanctions.
He said that although the inability of the fleet to enter Australian ports is the practical effect, sanctions are often symbolic.
“It sends this message from:” We know who you are. We know that you are not good. We know that you are the ships selling Russian oil in spite of price capitalization, “he said SBS News.
Moiseienko said it does not mean that the ships operate illegally, where much of the trade takes place with countries that do not impose sanctions.
“The effect will be quite limited, unless those ships actually have some plans to come to Australia or have some commercial activities in the region, it might be the symbolic declaration of conviction,” said Moiseienko.
Camilleri, on the other hand, was a little butter and called the impact of sanctions “absolutely negligible”.
“It’s just window dressing to show that Australia is saying something, does something, but it is not really a meaningful intervention in the unfortunate situation in the relationship between Ukraine and Russia at the moment,” he said.
He proposes that the government does discussions with China about what a peaceful outlook entails and how Australia can exert influence or stop it -furen.
With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press.
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