Russia uses merchant navy fleet for intelligence operations in North Sea, study reveals

HUNDREDS OF RUSSIAN MERCHANT ships have been utilized by the Kremlin for over a decade to carry out intelligence operations in the North Sea, a major new investigation has revealed. Belgian newspaper De Tijd and the investigative journalism website Follow the Money (FTM) carried out the joint investigation, using data provided by Global Fishing Watch, a Google-based international nonprofit organization that gathers information on commercial fishing activities worldwide.

Encompassing 220,000 square miles, the North Sea lies between France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, and Germany. It hosts many of the world’s major shipping lanes, an extensive network of energy pipelines, as well as key undersea communication cables. The development of large-scale offshore energy production has further-augmented the significance of the North Sea for the security of Europe in recent years. The strategic value of the North Sea has become even clearer since the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014.

According to the De Tijd/FTM study, the Russian government has been highly active in the North Sea through a variety of stealthy means –primarily by deploying civilian vessels to collect intelligence and possibly even carry out sabotage operations. The study focused on 1,012 Russian-flagged non-military vessels that have been active in the North Sea since 2014. These consist of oil tankers, scientific research vessels, fishing boats, cargo ships, and even privately owned yachts.

The study identified 60,000 loitering events involving these Russian vessels. In the shipping domain, the term ‘loitering event’ refers to vessels that deviate from their normal route, reduce speed for no obvious reason, drift aimlessly, or circle around a location that may initially appear arbitrary. Loitering and other such peculiar behavior by merchant ships makes no economic sense, as it requires more fuel and results in added compensation for crews. Notably, close to 1,000 loitering events by nearly 170 different Russian ships were found to have taken place within less than a mile from an underground cable or energy pipeline.

Experts who contributed to the FTM/De Tijd study said that these loitering events likely point to intelligence collection activities aimed at mapping critical infrastructure across the North Sea. In some cases, Russian ships slow down in order to secretly release underwater surveillance or attack drones, or submarines. In other cases, the ships themselves may be used to sever underwater cables by various means, including deliberately dragging their anchors across the seabed.

The affected countries have been slow to react. It was only this year that most of the nations that share access to the North Sea, namely Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, and Germany, formalized an intelligence-sharing agreement through the North Sea Security Pact. However, aside from intelligence-sharing there are few signs of a comprehensive defense effort against the Russian operations. The latter take place in international waters, where all ships enjoy the right of free passage. In its current form, international law does not permit any defensive action against these activities, other than surveillance, the study concludes.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 24 June 2024 | Permalink