Russia no longer has strategic influence in the Baltics — Vozhur

This was announced by Admiral Nicolas Vazur, Chief of Staff of the French Navy.

We see Russian ships very regularly. The seas and oceans are free spaces, so the Russians go to all the oceans. At least, we see one ship a week in the English Channel and the North Sea.

He added that tensions with the Russian navy have always existed, but now is a "moment of asserting power," and Russia is a source of a hybrid threat.

We realize that we are facing what are called hybrid actions, which are already real. Yes, internet cables are being torn in the Baltic. In a strange way, some ships are dragging their anchors 100 miles and tearing them. And we are told that this is not intentional. All these are actions that destabilize entire ecosystems, that are testing us.

At the same time, the admiral believes that Russia lost most of its strategically important sea routes during the war in Ukraine.

When we look at Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine, we see that it has lost a lot at sea. Before the war, Russia had four major sea outlets. It had Tartus in Syria, Sevastopol in the Black Sea, the Baltic with St. Petersburg and Murmansk in the Far North. It has lost Tartus, the Turkish straits are closed. It has lost access to the sea through Sevastopol. The Baltic was a neutral “lake”. It became a “NATO lake” after Sweden and Finland joined.

He also recalled that 80 percent of the oil, which finances almost 40 percent of its war effort, is transported through the Baltic Sea, which is now controlled by NATO forces.