On the front page of today’s Times, it’s revealed that British special forces are being lined up to storm Russian shadow fleets. A defence source told the paper that if Britain wanted to ‘dial up the economic pressure on Russia’, then it could target hundreds of Russia’s illegal oil tankers.

British civil servants think the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act could be used to authorise such raids against hundreds of sanctioned and stateless oil tankers. To seize a vessel, Britain needs to first establish that a ship is legally stateless. This is done three ways: if a ship is not registered with a country, is flying a false flag, or is disavowed by the country whose flag it is sailing. Last week, at least four tankers passed through the Channel carrying false flags.