In a recent interview, Linken-Chef Jan van Aken called for increased pressure on Russia’s shadow fleet to force the Kremlin to engage in peace talks with Ukraine. He suggested that the coastal guards of the Baltic Sea’s littoral states could inspect and detain ships for days or weeks, driving up transport costs to a point where the oil trade would no longer be profitable. “Putin’s war chest will be drained to the point of no return” he said.
Van Aken emphasized that military aid is not the decisive factor in achieving a just peace resolution. Instead, he proposed alternative ways to exert pressure on the Kremlin. He pointed out that China has the capacity to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and the question is what concessions Beijing would demand in return. The other pressure point, according to the Linken-Chef, is the shadow fleet, which Russia uses to circumvent Western sanctions and also destroys undersea cables in the Baltic Sea.