Europe must sever its remaining energy ties with Russia as quickly as possible, crack down more harshly on the operation of Russia’s “shadow fleet,” and expand sanctions pressure, since the economic factor remains the key instrument for deterring Russian aggression.
This was stated in an interview with the Guildhall news agency by Saskia Kluit, a member of the Senate of the Netherlands (GreenLeft) and of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
According to her, the “obvious” step for Europe is to “end our fossil ties with Russia, which still remain, our energy relations.”
The senator named tough measures against Russia’s “shadow fleet” as the second necessary step. At the same time, she separately clarified that this did not mean the use of force: “I do not mean attacking with weapons and so on, but simply stopping them.” According to her, the purpose of such actions is obvious — “to ensure that Russia does not make money from this.”
In addition, she pointed out that Europe may also consider new restrictive measures: “we can think about additional sanctions against Russia’s leadership.” At the same time, as the senator emphasized, European countries and their allies “still have many steps that we can take.”
She also separately emphasized the need to coordinate efforts with partners. According to her, “we can try to do this with a multilateral approach,” since a significant part of the logistics was not stopped, but only changed. “We know that many shipments were simply rerouted, not stopped. So the goods no longer went through Europe, but now they are going out through the eastern part of Russia,” she noted.
Summing up, the senator emphasized that economic pressure should become the main instrument of response to Russian aggression. “I think that in all wars, the economy, the economy is the key to stopping aggression. And that would be the right path for Europe,” she said.
Earlier it was reported that Russia had deployed a large-scale scheme of using African shipping registries to shield its “shadow fleet” from Western sanctions. According to the research, this practice allows Russian tankers to conceal their real owners, complicates inspections, and helps Russia preserve revenue from oil exports despite sanctions pressure.
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