Every sixth tanker in the world transports oil in the interests of Russia

Despite numerous Western sanctions packages, Moscow has created a large-scale illegal maritime transportation system.

Russia has managed to create an entire “gray” maritime transportation industry that allows it to circumvent international sanctions and earn money from oil exports. The New York Times writes about this.

According to S&P Global, about 17% of all oil tankers currently sailing in the world work in schemes related to the Russian Federation. This is almost one in six tankers.

The basis of the shadow fleet is old ships with opaque ownership and questionable insurance, which massively transport Russian oil to China and India, often hiding the real place of loading or using fake signals. The average age of these ships exceeds 20 years, which poses serious risks to the environment and shipping safety.

The EU, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia have already imposed sanctions on hundreds of such vessels, but Russia continues to add new ones to its fleet. Despite the additional costs, the Kremlin is making billions of dollars from the illicit trade, funding its war against Ukraine.

According to maritime security experts, the fight against “shadow” shipping has become a game of “whack-a-mole”: each blocked ship is quickly replaced by another under a new flag or registration. This not only undermines the effectiveness of the sanctions, but also creates an illegal maritime economy that could exist even after the war is over.

Recently, USM reported that the EU plans to accelerate the ban on Russian LNG imports under US pressure.