Wednesday 22 June 2022 05:08 PM Russian shipping firm 'evading sanctions by renaming ships and turning off ... trends now

Wednesday 22 June 2022 05:08 PM Russian shipping firm 'evading sanctions by renaming ships and turning off ... trends now
Wednesday 22 June 2022 05:08 PM Russian shipping firm 'evading sanctions by renaming ships and turning off ... trends now

Wednesday 22 June 2022 05:08 PM Russian shipping firm 'evading sanctions by renaming ships and turning off ... trends now

Russian tankers are still delivering oil to European ports and providing Moscow with much-needed hard currency even after sanctions have come into effect, a report has found.

Russia's largest shipping company, Sovcomflot, was sanctioned by the US and the EU in February, but an analysis of company records and live ship tracking by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project shows crude oil deliveries are continuing.

More than 18 Sovcomflot oil tankers have been steaming across the world's oceans  and shipping lanes in the last month, each laden with an average payload worth $240million.

In order to circumvent western sanctions, some of these ships turned off their transponders, vanishing from real time marine traffic tracking websites.

Others renamed themselves in an effort to disguise their Russian ownership, with one tanker which did not switch off its transponder suddenly changing course from the US and heading to South Africa, where it quickly changed names.

At least five other Sovcomflot ships have been tracked recently coming from, en route to or in docks in Italy, Denmark, and the Netherlands, even after EU sanctions came into full effect.

It is not clear who is buying the sanctioned oil once it has been delivered to these EU ports.

Pictured: A Russian oil/chemical tanker at sea outside the far eastern city of Vladivostok. More than 18 Sovcomflot oil tankers have been steaming across the world's oceans and shipping lanes in the last month, each laden with an average payload worth $240million

Pictured: A Russian oil/chemical tanker at sea outside the far eastern city of Vladivostok. More than 18 Sovcomflot oil tankers have been steaming across the world's oceans and shipping lanes in the last month, each laden with an average payload worth $240million

Russia's largest shipping company, Sovcomflot, has been sanctioned by the US and the EU, but an analysis of company records and live ship tracking shows crude oil deliveries are continuing

Russia's largest shipping company, Sovcomflot, has been sanctioned by the US and the EU, but an analysis of company records and live ship tracking shows crude oil deliveries are continuing

Ownership of the tankers is registered to subsidiary companies based in Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates and they sail under a Liberian flag, the country with former Fifa World Player of the Year George Weah as

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