Top Tweets for #Shadowfleet

💰 The Kremlin is tempting Trump's team with multibillion-dollar deals Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev is actively trying to convince the US administration to resume large-scale economic cooperation with Russia without waiting for a peace agreement. On the table are joint projects in energy, civil aviation, rare-earth mineral extraction, artificial intelligence, and other technologies. According to Le Monde, Dmitriev has carefully studied Trump and his inner circle. “He knows that Mr. Trump and his representatives prefer megaprojects,” explains Carnegie Center researcher Andrei Pertsev. The strategy appears to be working. US special envoy Steve Witkoff has reportedly shown interest in major joint projects, while a recently concluded Russian diesel deal could be just the first step toward a much broader partnership. Business with the Kremlin first, and peace sometime later? 🤷‍♂️

⚡️ Musk has published a lengthy post about Starlink in Ukraine. "That loophole was closed" We believe it's important to share his statement in full: Using Starlink, a civilian commercial service, for offensive drone strikes to kill people has never been allowed, nor should it be. Starshield, a different system, is controlled by the US government. What they decide to do is up to them. Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week. Starlink remains critical to the defense of Ukraine, as it is the only system that cannot be jammed or blown up, at least for now. Were Starlink to be turned off, the Ukrainian front line would collapse immediately. This is NOT a threat, it is simply a statement of fact. Starlink was also crucial to preventing Russia from overrunning Ukraine in the early days of the war, as all other means of communication were destroyed or jammed by Russia. SpaceX has done more to defend Ukraine than any private company on Earth BY FAR. That said, I have nothing but UTTER CONTEMPT for the virtue-signaling evil warmongers who push for endless slaughter and offer no realistic solution to the conflict. May you burn in hell. End of story.

Kushner urged Zelenskyy to stop strikes on Russian oil refineries According to Axios, Trump's son-in-law joined the talks in Oslo via video link and once again pressed for an end to the attacks. “Jared was very direct,” a source told the outlet. The talks in Oslo focused on a plan to end the war. According to the source, Ukraine presented new ideas, which were discussed in detail. After the meeting, Zelenskyy said he was prepared to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries if Moscow took reciprocal steps.

🤡 Trump administration finds a way to remove some Russian shadow fleet tankers from sanctions without formally lifting them — Bloomberg US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Washington is allowing sanctioned tankers to be sold to new owners, who would then be able to use them for legitimate oil shipments. According to Wright, around 1,600 vessels are currently under sanctions. The initiative could bring dozens or even hundreds of tankers back into the legitimate shipping market, helping reduce transportation costs. Wright rejected the suggestion that the US is effectively lifting sanctions. He explained that under their new owners, the vessels would no longer transport sanctioned oil. “We’ll move some ships from what I call the ‘bad guys’ fleet to the ‘good guys’ fleet,” the secretary said. How convenient: yesterday a tanker was “bad,” today it has a new owner — and suddenly it's “good.”

Egypt just hit the Russian shadow fleet. Not on purpose, which makes it better. The Suez Canal Authority has introduced mandatory inspections and tests for every vessel aged 25 years or older. Payment is due in advance. The cost and the duration were not disclosed. The only exemption goes to ships that return to the canal within six months of a previous inspection and had zero remarks. That reads like a technical note for shipping agents. For Moscow, it's been among the nastiest surprises in a long while. THE FLEET IS THE OLD SHIPS The shadow fleet is, by design, a fleet of aging hulls. S&P Global data from 2024 shows about 90 Russian shadow-fleet tankers built in 2001 or earlier. They fall under the new rule today. Another 250 or so were built between 2002 and 2006. Within five years, they will cross the 25-year line. Some will pass the checks. Still, every passage means extra cost, delays, and the risk that a rusting tanker simply gets refused entry. A paid-in-advance inspection with no published price list or timeline is a bureaucratic tax. It falls on exactly the vessels Russia depends on. THE DETOUR IS EXPENSIVE Russian crude moves from Baltic and Black Sea ports to India, one of its biggest buyers. Suez is the shortcut. The alternative is the long way around Africa: • weeks of additional sailing • higher freight rates • less profit for Russia on every single cargo Every longer or more expensive voyage draws down the oil money that funds the fighting. CAIRO ISN'T DOING THIS FOR UKRAINE Egypt is thinking about its canal, not about Russia. The global stock of old vessels has grown 75 percent in five years. After the Ever Given blocked the waterway in 2021, Egyptian authorities know exactly what one stuck ship costs. Nobody wants a failing tanker breaking down in the middle of a major trade route. And Cairo is no enemy of Moscow. Egypt buys Russian grain and bought Russian weapons for years. This year it became among the biggest buyers of Russian oil and oil products, reselling part of it onward. The blow to Russian oil logistics looks accidental. The effect is the same regardless of the motive. WHY RUSSIA CAN'T SIMPLY REPLACE THEM The whole scheme rests on cheap old tankers that are easy to buy and painless to lose. When one gets sanctioned, it is transferred to a new shell company, gets a new flag, or is swapped for another hull. Owners of young tankers rarely sell into this trade, because they can keep earning legally. Russia cannot easily find newer replacements. The pool of old ships now faces a new filter at one of the most important chokepoints on Earth. THE TIMING IS BRUTAL FOR WASHINGTON'S IDEA This lands as Washington discusses easing life for the very same fleet. Asian shipping stocks were hammered on Thursday. The trigger was reports that the Trump administration is weighing exemptions for blacklisted tankers linked to Russia, Iran and Venezuela, to carry oil not itself under US sanctions. COSCO Shipping Energy fell more than 13 percent in Hong Kong. China Merchants Energy Shipping and China Merchants Nanjing Tanker hit their 10 percent daily limits in mainland trading. Clarksons Research counts 1,010 individually sanctioned oil tankers totalling 121m dwt, about 17 percent of global tanker capacity. The stated goal of the US idea is to bring down record freight rates, with Treasury approval required for each use. Nothing has been formally announced. Energy Secretary Chris Wright floated it in Riyadh, days after Washington temporarily authorized Russian diesel trade until April 7, 2027. So the picture is absurd. Egypt, buying Russian oil by the shipload, makes the old tankers harder to run. Washington, which is supposed to be squeezing Russia, is talking about making them easier to run. When a Suez bureaucrat does more to raise Moscow's shipping costs than the White House is willing to, the sanctions policy needs a hard look.

La France est déterminée à lutter contre la flotte fantôme, partout dans le monde. Ce matin, à plus de 450 nautiques au sud de La Réunion, notre Marine nationale a arraisonné le pétrolier DF Peak, suspecté de naviguer sous un faux pavillon et impliqué dans des activités illicites de transport de carburants. Cette action, conduite conformément au droit international de la mer, témoigne de notre détermination à faire respecter le droit et à lutter contre tous les trafics illicites, où qu’ils se produisent.