Nikolai Patrushev, chairman of Russia’s Maritime Board and one of Vladimir Putin’s closest security allies, said this week that Moscow is considering escorting its merchant fleet with Russian Navy warships and deploying “mobile firing groups” to protect vessels from what he characterized as Western piracy.

The language marks a shift. Russia’s shadow fleet — the aging, loosely insured tankers that carry sanctioned crude beyond the reach of Western price caps — has operated in deliberate ambiguity for years. Now Moscow is signaling it will defend that trade by force if necessary.

From Covert to Overt

The militarization is not entirely new. A joint investigation by OCCRP and regional outlets found that tankers departing Baltic Sea ports have routinely carried pairs of unqualified Russian “supernumeraries” — men with ties to the Wagner Group, GRU, and special forces units. At least 17 such personnel were identified across 20 voyages in the Gulf of Finland, functioning as covert vessel protection teams to deter European boarding operations.

But Patrushev’s talk of formal naval escorts and firing groups is a different order of escalation. In June 2025, the Russian Navy already began convoy operations in the Gulf of Finland, with the missile corvette Boykiy accompanying sanctioned tankers Selva and Sierra.

Why Now

Western sanctions enforcement has turned increasingly physical, with European authorities moving beyond financial penalties toward direct interdiction of shadow fleet vessels. The shift from economic pressure to physical confrontation has raised the stakes for Moscow’s sanctions-evasion operation.

Patrushev’s proposal is the answer: a formal military umbrella for the trade routes that keep sanctioned crude flowing. For Baltic and Black Sea shipping lanes, that raises the prospect of armed Russian escorts operating in congested international waters — a scenario NATO maritime planners will not be treating as hypothetical.

Sources