On December 5, sanctions prohibiting maritime exports of Russian oil came into force, but, as noted by international experts, Russia does not intend to lose its “oil” position. In order to circumvent the sanctions to continue selling “black gold” outside the sanctioning countries, Russia had to buy directly or through intermediaries more than a hundred tankers to sell oil.
However, there is a nuance. Russia is actively buying tankers, mostly old ones, which have long exhausted their capabilities and it is not safe to transport oil in them, especially in large volumes. Moreover without a reliable insurance, they will not be allowed into foreign waters and Russia will have to be inventive and may have to apply an “ecological scheme” – to transfer oil from one tanker to another directly in the ocean. Under such conditions, accidents with oil spills from old vessels are almost inevitable. The only thing left to do is to wait for a tailwind, or better yet, a storm, which will drag this oil away to the blue sea.
Russia is descending into a spiral of disaster with this debacle. Environmental catastrophe is becoming a reality, and its consequences will be comparable to the use of weapons of mass destruction.
