The West must not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against Russia

Jack Watling, at the Royal United Services Institute, says Europe has been hiding behind the tariff-free navigation clauses of the 1857 Treaty of Copenhagen, raising a legal smokescreen for what is really fear of escalation. “As soon as you say ‘here is the choke point, let’s actually do something about it’, everyone starts citing international law, and saying you can’t touch any of these vessels,” ... He has penned a plan to shut down Putin’s “shadow fleet” by banning these floating environmental disasters for multiple violations. “We can require them to have insurance, to be flagged to a country, to have crew who actually have the qualifications to operate the vessels, and for the vessels to meet basic safety standards, like not having their hulls rusting to pieces,” he said.