Greece stepped up its moves to discourage Russian oil transfers near its coast on Tuesday, by extending an exclusion of the Laconian Gulf, a notorious ship-to-ship hotspot, for nominal navy exercises.

A NAVTEX guidance discouraging commercial ship traffic in the area, which started on 1 May and was extended twice for brief periods, has now been renewed for a full six weeks until 15 July, according to a message on the website of the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service.