It is well known that the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas has resulted in the Yemeni Houthi rebels declaring war on the Israelis, launching drone and missile attacks against them, with Tel Aviv responding with a fierce air strike a few days ago.
The Houthis have subsequently carried out strikes and even hijacked commercial ships of Israeli and Western interests in the southern Red Sea, resulting in serious problems for the safety of navigation in this key area for global maritime trade and transport, which caused the immediate reaction of the US-Western states (France-Canada-Spain and others), which decided to create a joint naval force in the area in question, as guarantors of the safety of navigation of merchant ships.
The Houthis do not threaten Russian tankers but only those of Western interests.
The only merchant ships that are not threatened by the Houthis are the Russian ones, since they and the Russians have a common ally in Iran.
The Houthis therefore provide safe passage only for tankers carrying Russian oil through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal, while Western ships can either sail 15,000 miles around Africa, or pass through Russia's northern Arctic route, or have their cargoes transported by rail through Russia
Putin wins again.
The importance of safe navigation in the southern Red Sea for the West and Russia
As an internationally respected media outlet points out, "Russia's war in Ukraine has made the treacherous waters of the southern Red Sea a vital global trade corridor for oil, especially Moscow's exports."
"At the same time Europe , is increasingly relying on Middle Eastern cargoes, while Moscow for its part has increased flows to Asia as it seeks outlets for its exports.
This has increased oil traffic through the Red Sea, both northbound and southbound, by around 140% to 3.8 million barrels a day.
The rise underscores the vulnerability of a key choke point for oil flows as world powers redraw the map of global energy trade.
In recent days, a major escalation in attacks on commercial ships by Yemen-based Houthi militants has forced companies such as BP Plc and Equinor ASA to halt shipments and reroute vessels, with oil prices rising.
These have prompted the US and its allies to set up a task force in the region to deal with the attacks, which have also highlighted the amount of oil moving through the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
Shipments of petroleum products through the Suez Canal have more than doubled since the Russian invasion of Ukraine
In the two months before its attack on Ukraine, Russia shipped about 120,000 barrels of crude oil a day from its western ports to markets east of Suez.
Over the last six months, this figure has averaged 1.7 million barrels per day.
Over the same period, crude shipments from the Middle East to European countries have jumped from about 870,000 barrels per day to 1.3 million barrels per day.
Shipments of petroleum products through the Suez Canal have more than doubled since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, according to information compiled by the analysis firm Kpler, obtained by Bloomberg.
During the same period in early 2022, shipments that eventually passed through the Suez Canal totaled 1.7 million barrels per day. From June 1 to the end of November this year, that number had jumped to 3.5 million.
The jump was greatest in shipments of so-called pure petroleum products - such as petrol, diesel and blending components - which rose from 1.2 million to 2.3 million. However, shipments of dirty products, including fuel oil, rose by more than half a million.
The war in Ukraine diversified Russian oil "routes"
Companies in the European Union withdrew from crude oil purchases from Russia shortly after the war began. The bloc imposed a crude embargo in December 2022, followed by a ban on fuel imports two months later.
This forced Russia to send its oil on much longer routes to buyers in China and India, making the security of its Red Sea tankers imperative.
Almost all crude oil shipped from Russia's western ports must pass alongside Yemen's Red Sea coast.
Most of the tankers carrying Russian crude are part of the huge shadow fleet of ships set up to circumvent Western sanctions.
The owners and insurers of these ships are often opaque, raising concerns about whether the tankers and their cargoes, including liabilities related to any oil spills, are in fact uninsured."
Putin becomes the winner
From the above we understand that the only one who is definitely benefiting from the Yemeni Houthi attacks on merchant ships is Putin, since on the one hand Russian-owned tankers are not at risk, unlike those of Western interests that are affected.
As a result, Russian tankers carrying oil, which is so vital to their country's economy, can pass through the Black Sea - Aegean - NE Mediterranean - Suez - Red Sea - Red Sea - Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean and vice versa, undisturbed, as opposed to the West, which needs military protection, with the cost of transporting crude oil being prohibitive by following the route of crossing Africa via its southernmost cape, the Cape of Good Hope.
Behind the Houthis is Iran, which finances/arms/trains them, a mortal enemy of Israel and the West, while Tehran is known to be an ally of Russia, supporting it in the war in Ukraine by sending thousands of kamikaze drones.
