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00:00Now, a new investigation by the NGO Disclose has found that the port of Brest in Brittany
00:05here in France is being used as a crucial stop for tankers delivering gas valuable to
00:10President Vladimir Putin. It revealed that the port is being used as a repair yard for
00:14tankers delivering Russian gas around the world, many of which get their gas from the
00:19Yamal LNG site, helping to finance Putin's war in Ukraine. Yinka Oyotade has more.
00:24It's home to one of Europe's biggest repair yards now revealed to be aiding Vladimir Putin's
00:31war machine. According to an investigation by the non-profit Disclose, several tankers
00:37delivering Russian gas to countries around the world have been docking at the port of
00:41Brest in northwestern France to get some TLC. This at a time when the EU is tightening sanctions
00:48to clamp down on Russian gas imports. Disclose found that eight vessels that have undergone
00:53repairs at the French port load up at Russia's Yamal gas terminal. The site is owned by Novotec,
01:00which belongs to Russian oligarchs close to Putin. Disclose says the company appears to
01:05be helping finance Putin's war. According to the Belgian NGO Bonbita Leaf Media, in
01:112023 Moscow cashed in on over 3 billion euros in taxes alone from Yamal. While the EU talks
01:18tough on Russian gas, it's given member states the powers to end imports from Russia.
01:24The Ukrainian NGO WeStand says the absence of an EU-wide ban is helping pump more funds into
01:30Moscow's war chest. While France is one of Ukraine's staunchest allies, it's been quietly
01:36ramping up gas payments. According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Paris paid
01:42over 600 million euros to the Kremlin for gas supplies in the first three months of 2024.
01:50Well, I'm pleased to welcome to the program the author of the investigation,
01:54Alexander Abdelaila. Thank you so much for speaking to us here on France 24. First of all,
02:00how did you come up with the idea of investigating the subject?
02:05So actually, it's one of our readers that sent us several articles that she found
02:12in a local daily in the Bretagne region called Le Télégramme. And she found interesting
02:19that these articles mentioned LNG tankers being repaired in the Brest shipyard, but did not
02:28mention the close ties these ships had to the terminal that you mentioned in your report,
02:35Yamal LNG, it's called. And so she thought it would be maybe interesting for us to dig into
02:42that. And that's exactly what we did. And why are these ships being repaired
02:46in Brest so strategic for the Kremlin? Yeah, so I mean, you have to think about
02:53where the LNG terminal is located in Russia. So it's in the north of Russia. It's the Yamal
03:01Peninsula. And actually, between six to eight months per year, it's totally frozen up there.
03:07And so Russia really needs these ships. These are icebreaker ships, which have been built
03:16specifically to deliver the gas from that terminal. And so it's the only ships that
03:22can break through the ice and deliver gas throughout the world, even when it's frozen
03:28up there. Without these ships, Russia would just have to sit and wait for the summer,
03:35which is not feasible economically for them. So they really need the ships. They really need them
03:41working and in good shape. And that's why they're so strategic for the Kremlin.
03:47And why do they go to Brest? Why not? Why not elsewhere?
03:51So yeah, so actually, what we showed in the investigation is that they go to Brest,
03:56but also in Denmark, in a shipyard in Odense, and sometimes also to Asia. So actually,
04:04these ships are very, very big, very large. So they are almost 300 meters long,
04:11weigh thousands of tons. So there are only a few shipyards in the world that can repair them.
04:18And so Brest is actually located very conveniently for these ships, because it's very close to
04:26terminals that import the gas from Yamal Energy, such as Dunkirk in north of France and Montoir
04:33de Bretagne. So it's actually a very good deal for these ships, because they do not have
04:38to sail for weeks to get repaired. They can just go deliver gas and then just sail for a few more
04:47days or one day and get repaired and then go straight back to the Arctic Circle.
04:54And these revelations come at a time when the EU is toughening sanctions in a bid to curb Russian
05:00gas exports around the world. So could you expand a bit on how this is a problem for the EU?
05:06Well, yeah, it's really a matter of coherence. I mean, if on the one hand, you keep communicating
05:14about the fact that you want to be harsher with Russia and, you know, sanction it in different
05:20ways, like curb down on the gas imports. But then, on the other hand, you allow these ships that are
05:28so strategic for the Russian energy sector, but so in the end, also for the Kremlin,
05:35to be repaired in European shipyards. And actually, it's really incoherent. And what we
05:44show in the investigation, we calculated the difference, the price they would have to pay
05:51if these ships were not being repaired in the EU, but would have to ship all the way to Asia,
05:57for example, it would represent a difference of one to almost $5 million per repair,
06:07per maintenance operation. So it would really mean something. And I think it's,
06:12I mean, it's not, would make a huge difference for the energy sector, because we're talking about
06:19dozens of billions, but it would really be a political message, I think, of significance
06:24from the EU. Right. And what does a ban on repairs by the EU mean for these ships,
06:30but also the Russian gas industry in general? Well, it's really, I mean, it would mean for them
06:38a bit more headache, like logistically, so they would need to go probably all the way to Asia.
06:45And so it would cost more money. Because this business, I mean, it's very expensive,
06:53everything is very expensive. These ships, they cost about $100,000 per day, just to operate them.
07:01So if we, if they have to sail like two more weeks, you could imagine what it means for them.
07:07And I mean, also what a former captain of one of these icebreakers told us is that this ban,
07:14if the EU was to ban repairs on these ships, it would mean, for example, if one of these
07:21icebreakers has a technical failure in the Arctic Circle, and he told us that it already happened
07:27in the past, it would mean that this ship would be immobilized and not be able to deliver gas
07:35for many weeks. And that is actually, it would be a huge loss for the terminal. And yeah, it's just,
07:41it would make things more complicated. And I think that would make sense. It would be maybe
07:47in tune with the political message that the EU has put out there.
07:52Right. And why is the Yamal LNG terminal so strategic? And why is it, you know,
07:57important for Russia specifically?
08:00Well, I mean, you, when you talk about wars, you have to talk about money. And
08:06Yamal LNG is just bringing in a lot of cash to Russia. So what you showed in your report is
08:12we're talking about only in taxes, we're talking about over 3 billion euros for 2023, that the
08:21exports of gas from Yamal LNG brought in, in Russia to the Russian government. And so it's just a
08:29matter of, you know, cutting, cutting the revenues and making it more difficult to operate and less
08:36easy to bring in all that cash that in the end could fuel the war in Ukraine.
08:43All right, Alexander Abdoulaye, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us here on France24.
08:48Thanks.
08:50Time now for