The sea is knee-deep: Russia has sent the fourth under-sanctioned tanker on the road
24 July 2024 17:09
Russia continues to test the limits of Western sanctions by sending the fourth sanctioned tanker belonging to the state-owned company Sovcomflot to sea. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Bloomberg.
The tanker “Viktor Bakaev” left the Baltic port of Primorsk on Sunday, July 23, 2024, carrying about 730,000 barrels of Urals crude oil. According to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, the tanker is bound for the Chinese port of Zhoushan.
“Viktor Bakaev” was put on the sanctions list by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in December last year for violating the price limit on Russian oil exports set by the G7 countries. This is the ship’s first voyage since the sanctions were imposed.
The use of “Viktor Bakaev” is part of a wider trend. This is the fourth sanctioned tanker that Russia has recently put into operation after several months of inactivity. The total number of vessels sanctioned by the US, EU or UK rose to 62 last week after British authorities added 11 more ships to the sanctions list.
The three previous Sovcomflot tankers, which went to sea earlier, transshipped cargo at sea outside the range of digital ship tracking systems, which is confirmed by satellite images. Sovcomflot has not yet commented on the situation.
Experts note that the more Russia can use these sanctions vessels, the less destructive the sanctions will be. This is causing concern among the G7 countries, which are trying to limit the fleet of vessels carrying Russian oil.
The graph given in the article shows the dynamics of the imposition of sanctions on tankers from October 2023 to July 2024. During this period, the number of sanctioned vessels increased from 4 to 62, with the largest jump occurring in June and July 2024.
The situation with the Viktor Bakaev tanker shows that Russia continues to look for ways to circumvent Western sanctions and support its oil trade. This calls into question the effectiveness of the existing sanctions mechanisms.
As reported by 
, 44 European countries supported the plan to combat the Russian “shadow fleet”. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has become a key partner of Russia in circumventing sanctions, and India plans to expand trade with Russia.
