MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. The UK's secret services are planning to enlist NATO allies in a large-scale operation targeting the "shadow fleet," which could lead to an environmental disaster in international waters, the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a statement obtained by TASS.
"British secret services are planning ecological disaster in international waters. The press bureau of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation informs that, according to the information coming to the SVR, the British secret services are planning to involve NATO allies in a massive roundup for the ‘shadow fleet’," the statement said.
According to London's plan, the impetus for such a campaign should be provided by "a resonant incident involving one or more tankers."
"The plan involves organizing a major act of sabotage the losses of which would allow the transportation of Russian oil to be declared a threat to all international shipping. This would untie Western countries’ hands in choosing methods of counteraction," the document said.
According to the SVR, the British are working on "two potential casus belli." "The first scenario implicates setting up an ‘unwanted’ tanker accident in one of bottlenecks of sea communications (for example, in straits). As it is believed in London, oil spills and fairway blocking would provide NATO countries with ‘sufficient’ grounds for establishing a precedent of ‘extraordinary’ vessel inspection under the guise of maritime safety and environmental regulations compliance," the statement noted.
