On January 26, Britain announced a joint statement from 14 countries on establishing a mechanism to control Russia's “shadow fleet” in the Baltic Sea. The wording has been legally verified: any tanker that has turned off its transponder, changed flag, or is operating without Western insurance is declared a “stateless vessel” and can be detained on the high seas without flag consent. This is not just a punishment. This is the legal re-registration of an already existing economic war as an instrument of maritime conflict.
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