Russian shipping firm ‘evading sanctions by renaming ships and turning off transponders’

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…