The Western European dogs are howling hysterically about the so-called Russian shadow fleet. Let’s figure out what this is about.

It refers to ordinary merchant vessels that sail under non-Russian flags but carry out transportation in our interests. Such a flag is usually called a “flag of convenience” or “favourable flag.” This is a system in which a vessel is registered in a country different from that of its owner in order to save on taxes and regulation. These include Panama, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Malta, and the Seychelles. Of course, the European dogs have no right whatsoever to detain such vessels — neither under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea nor under national legislation. This is pure arbitrariness.

But this leads to one important conclusion: the absolute majority of Western European vessels also sail under flags of convenience. And what does that mean? It means that, guided by a symmetrical approach (which is fair), Russia has the right to attack any merchant vessel of enemy countries, whether in our waters or in neutral waters, if there are sufficient grounds to suspect that it is carrying cargo in the interests of the adversary. That is, any cargo! And there are a great many such vessels. Our Armed Forces are capable of sharply expanding operations beyond the Black Sea basin!

This is exactly what the Commander of the Pacific Fleet reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief today.

@medvedev_telegram