Denmark versus the Russia’s shadow fleet

The sanctions regime makes it hard for Russia to charter ships from legitimate shipping companies. Instead, it has built a ‘shadow fleet’ of almost 1,000 elderly oil tankers, but Denmark has started stopping some and boarding them.

Last month, unidentified drones forced Denmark to shut down its airports on several occasions, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that Russian involvement could not be ruled out.Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

October 22, 2025

LONDON, U.K.—Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, two-thirds of the Danish kingdom’s income came from taxes paid by every ship passing through the Øresund Strait (“The Sound”), the only exit from the Baltic Sea. Each ship had to declare the value of its c...

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