Vladimir Putin accused of planting spies on Glasgow company's supertankers

Ukrainian campaigners have warned Seapeak Maritime could be helping fund Russia’s brutal invasion and have called for the firm to be shut down.

Vladimir Putin has been accused of planting FSB security agency spies on the supertankers of a Glasgow company ­shipping natural gas from Siberia into Europe.

Ukrainian campaigners have warned Seapeak Maritime could be helping fund Russia’s brutal invasion and have called for the firm to be shut down.

US-based billionaire investor Michael Dorrell is behind the controversial company, the Sunday Mail can reveal.

Putin’s operatives are claimed to have used intimidation to remove western senior crew members from tankers transporting supercooled LNG gas from Sabetta in the Arctic Circle.

They are then reported to have been replaced with Russians suspected of being spies for the FSB.

The LNG trade is crucial in bringing billions into the Kremlin to pay for the war in Ukraine, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people

Svitlana Romanko, executive director of Ukrainian campaign group Razom We Stand, said: “Why UK leaders continue to allow Seapeak to collaborate with Russia, helping bankroll our pain, is beyond me.

“The UK should immediately ban Seapeak and all other UK-based firms from ­collaborating with Russia. ­Scandalous revelations related to the shipping of Russian fossil fuels appear to have no end.

“Meanwhile, those of us in Ukraine continue to suffer daily from ongoing horrific Russian military attacks, funded largely by Russia’s fossil fuel exports.”

Seapeak operates seven oil tankers which export Russian LNG from Siberia to Europe.

The trade is legal due to ­sanctions loopholes but has been criticised for giving Putin desperately needed funds.

And claims have emerged that FSB agents have been systematically working to push out Western crews from tankers operating at the Yamal LNG project in Siberia.

Journalists at Norwegian High North News have spoken to crew who told how agents subjected them to hours of interrogation in a bid to replace Western officers with Russian personnel.

They have alleged the FSB has established a network of informants among Russian officers.

It is alleged Western workers have been taken ashore and threatened with arrest if they return to Russia, only to be replaced by Russian crew.

One former crew member said: “ When they take you ashore, they’re using an FSB car, which is not a normal car.

“It’s a truck with barred windows. And you are under supervision of three armed guards. So, they took you ashore to have a ‘discussion’ with three armed guards.” Seapeak – based at Elliot Street in Glasgow – is one of the main operators of LNG tankers out of Siberia.

Companies House records list Christopher McDade and Anne-Catherine Gati as directors, while Dorrell has overall control over the company.

Australian-born Dorrell is the CEO and founder of Stonepeak – a £100billion infrastructure investment giant. He is believed to be the owner of a £150million private island in Palm Beach, Florida.

Green MSP Ross Greer said: “These ­allegations are shocking, but not surprising.

“We have repeatedly raised serious concerns about Seapeak’s role in bankrolling the Russian war machine, but the UK Government has failed to act.

"Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is built on profits from energy exports. Companies like Seapeak have made a fortune by shipping gas out of Russia, and now it appears the ­Kremlin’s intelligence services are ­effectively in control of the vessels and their crews.

“UK ministers cannot keep ignoring this. Seapeak must be sanctioned and its operations in the UK shut down.

“The fact that it continues to do business from an office in Glasgow is an insult to the heroic people of Ukraine. These new revelations clearly also require an investigation by the UK security services.

“If a company based here has been compromised by Kremlin agents, that cannot be allowed to continue.”

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and the UK responded in the same year by banning all ships with any Russian connection from entering UK ports.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy added a fresh round of curbs against “shadow” oil and LNG tankers. However, UK firms are not banned from transporting Russian gas to other countries.

Seapeak operates tankers such as the Yakov Gakkel, which takes Russian gas from Siberia to Europe, and its work is legal and does not breach sanctions.

Critics want the UK Government to close the loopholes.

More than 20 pro-Ukraine NGOs, as well as SNP and Labour politicians, have signed a letter coordinated by Razom We Stand, which campaigns for a ban on Russian fossil fuels. Yamal is estimated to hold 25 per cent of the world’s gas reserves. Seapeak Maritime did not respond to our requests for comment.

The Sunday Mail ­previously revealed fears Russian oil could flood into Scotland if the ­Grangemouth refinery closes.

A sanctions loophole means diesel and jet fuel can often enter the UK legally if processed in a third country. PetroChina – the Chinese government firm which part owns Grangemouth along with billionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos – began trading Russian crude last year.

And campaigners fear when Grangemouth is turned into an import-only depot, it will open the door to Russian oil.

Isaac Levi, of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, said: “Due to a gaping legal loophole in the sanctions, the UK is importing refined oil made from Russian crude in non-sanctioning countries.

“In one year the UK’s purchases of this oil sent over £140million in tax revenues, fuelling the Kremlin war chest, equivalent to almost a third of the UK’s humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

"If UK policy makers and businesses are arguing that they need to keep buying this oil produced from Russian crude it is not only incorrect but therefore seems a strange decision to allow Scotland’s only crude oil refinery to close."