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Naval standoff: attacks on the oil and gas infrastructure of the Russian Federation have become a new strategy of the West
The special services of the Russian Federation have prevented another sabotage of the Russian fuel infrastructure. The terrorists allegedly attached NATO explosives to the hull of the gas carrier Arrhenius, which was en route from Belgium to the Leningrad region. With such attacks on the energy infrastructure, the alliance is implementing a strategy to combat Russia, the State Duma told Izvestia. The Federation Council stressed that Russia is reaching a new level of countering terrorism. The attack on the port of Ust-Luga could have dealt a serious blow to Russian exports of hydrocarbons, as customers had hoped, the experts added. This will turn into problems for Europe, which, although it has reduced fuel imports from Russia, cannot completely abandon it.
Preventing a terrorist attack in Ust-Luga
Attacks on the energy infrastructure of the Russian Federation have become an element of a full-fledged NATO strategy in the fight against Russia, Pavel Zavalny, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Energy, told Izvestia.
— It's an obvious thing. To do this, the tanker was mined, and empty. When did they want to blow it up? When it's refueled right there in Ust-Luga. And even if Ukrainians are doing this, then they are probably supervised by Western intelligence services, the same British — they are capable of this," Zavalny stressed.
According to him, it is impossible to reach an agreement with Western countries to stop attacks on fuel infrastructure.
Earlier, the special services prevented a terrorist attack on the Russian gas carrier Arrhenius. It arrived from Belgium at the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region. The ship was supposed to be loaded and shipped to Turkey. During the inspection of the underwater part, divers found explosive devices such as marine magnetic mines, presumably manufactured in NATO countries. The FSB stressed that their installation could not have been carried out in Russian territorial waters. However, before unloading at the port of Antwerp, the Arrhenius ship was sent to the anchorage, where the ship stayed for about a day and a half, allegedly due to a strike by port workers.
"First of all, we must pay tribute to the professionalism of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which prevented trouble on the ship," Grigory Karasin, chairman of the Federation Council's International Affairs Committee, told Izvestia. Secondly, a professional approach to the fight against terrorism is becoming an obligatory part of our entire program of practical actions against terrorism, banditry and various other forms of attacks on the Russian Federation, its citizens, its transport, its energy system. It seems to me that the professional level is improving and we are reaching new parameters for countering this destructive course.
Oil storage facilities, chemical cargoes and gas infrastructure are concentrated in Ust-Luga. The explosion of a large vessel could cause a chain reaction. Such a large-scale terrorist attack in the port would have resulted in many months of downtime, Pavel Maryshev, a member of the expert council at the Russian Gas Society, told Izvestia.
The port of Ust-Luga was obviously chosen as a target as one of the key elements of the Russian export infrastructure. It is the largest port in the Baltic Sea and the second largest in terms of cargo turnover in Russia after Novorossiysk. Over the years, more than 100 million tons of cargo passed through the port annually, of which tens of millions were also oil and petroleum products.
— The reason for the attempted sabotage, its logic is clear. From the point of view of Western countries, this means depriving Russia of income from energy exports," says Sergey Tolkachev, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
Russia's total exports in 2025 amounted to $418.3 billion, while mineral products, the main energy group, accounted for $225.3 billion, or 53.9% of all supplies. In addition, Russia's oil and gas revenues have increased dramatically during the war in Iran. In the first month of the conflict alone, they jumped by almost half to $19 billion, and in May they are projected to grow by 39% in annual terms.
Who benefits from striking at the energy sector of the Russian Federation
Due to Western sanctions, the supply of Russian energy resources to Europe has decreased significantly, but has not stopped altogether. According to the European Commission, in 2025, the EU imported 36 billion cubic meters of gas, 9.7 million tons of oil and small amounts of uranium from Russia. At the same time, Moscow remained the second supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe with a share of 13.9%. France, Belgium and Hungary continued to import Russian fuel in 2025. And in the first quarter of 2026, the EU countries received a record volume of LNG at all — it increased by 16%, according to data from the American Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
However, political logic overcame economic logic even at the time of the undermining of the Nord Streams, said Sergey Tolkachev, professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. And it is much easier to mine a ship that carries natural resources. All these are signs of a dangerous escalation of the confrontation between Russia and Europe, the expert stressed.
Europe has already felt the consequences of the disruption of the Nord Streams: then the usual volumes of gas from Russia were sharply reduced, and the EU countries had to urgently rebuild the energy balance at the expense of more expensive LNG, for example, American. This has hit industry, raised energy generation costs, and driven up household tariff prices, especially in countries where gas is used for heating. Therefore, in case of termination of Russian LNG supplies, the effect will be similar, if not even more painful, primarily for the EU population, which will again face rising bills for housing and communal services.
— The question here is who is launching these attacks. It is unlikely that the EU countries themselves are doing this, we are talking about the Ukrainian special services," noted Andrei Kortunov, an expert at the Valdai Club. — There were conflicts between Ukraine and its European partners over priority goals, when the Europeans proposed to abandon attacks on energy infrastructure facilities precisely because of the difficulties in providing hydrocarbons to the European economy. And Ukraine ignored these wishes or suggestions. The interests of Europe and Ukraine do not completely coincide here.
But there is another person involved — the United States. They have done enough in recent years to gain control of the most important logistics and energy routes. In 2025, the White House set a course to restore American maritime dominance, and the G7 countries declared that strategic waterways should not be vulnerable to "undue influence." And the first one to be restricted in this regard is China.
In January, Panama cancelled a deal with a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison. Management of terminals in the ports of the channel was transferred to structures controlled by Denmark and Switzerland. The most painful blow for China was the Strait of Hormuz, which remains blocked due to US military actions in Iran.
Russia may be next in line, because Russia is a major export hub for the West, which has been systematically squeezed through sanctions for many years. Attacks on Russian infrastructure may be part of a U.S. strategy implemented by someone else, Tolkachev added.
The United States would be interested in taking control of the Russian energy sector, Kortunov stressed. According to him, earlier there were ideas to restore Nord Streams, and American companies would become their operators. At the same time, the expert added that the United States has repeatedly extended the decision on exceptions regarding Russian oil supplies after the outbreak of the war in Iran. In other words, Washington still understands that if oil is not supplied from Russia, this will lead to significant negative consequences for the global economy as a whole, and for the American economy in particular, concluded Kortunov. In such a situation, the issue of ensuring the security of logistics corridors and energy infrastructure comes to the fore.
"Since the industry is relatively fresh and the threats have not been studied in detail enough, it is necessary to carry out research and development work on a grant basis with the involvement of the most qualified specialists," concluded Maryshev.
Attacks on energy infrastructure have already become part of a hybrid war against Russia, where the goal is to put pressure on the entire export circuit of the country. For the Russian Federation, this means the need to strengthen the protection of key logistics hubs, and for the world to prevent risks to maritime transportation, energy markets, and the entire international trade system, which is being held hostage by political and military pressure on our country.
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