A move by Russia to place heavy machine guns on board a civilian cargo ship which has been sanctioned by Britain is designed to deter increasingly bold attempts by Nato countries to disrupt Moscow’s lucrative fossil fuel trade, intelligence experts have warned.
The Estonian authorities this week released pictures of two sandbag-protected machine gun emplacements on board the Marshal Vasilevskiy, a liquified natural gas (LNG) tanker which sails between Russia’s Baltic coast and Moscow’s Kaliningrad exclave.
The decision to visibly arm a merchant vessel in the congested waters of the Baltic Sea has prompted concern in western capitals that the Kremlin is willing to increase the risk of a confrontation with European countries while under pressure from Nato over its key trade route for oil and gas exports worth £75bn a year.
It comes after The i Paper this week revealed that Vladimir Putin has stepped up the use of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers to conduct intelligence-gathering operations using drones to surveil sensitive sights.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said this activity had included using a sanctioned tanker located off Hull to launch drones to spy on Nato nuclear weapon capabilities by overflying RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The US air base is widely thought to have taken delivery of a consignment of nuclear bombs last year after facilities were upgraded.
