Russian aggression against Ukraine, in particular, is financed through the sale of oil, and the West, although not directly, indirectly supports this process, says analyst Anatoly Amelin. The main tool in this is the so-called "shadow" tanker fleet, which helps Russia circumvent international sanctions and provides significant revenue used to wage war.
The main source of financing the war in Ukraine is Russian petrodollars and the shadow fleet that brings them.
But no one moves to block them (!)
Watching
Almost 2 weeks ago, I wrote a large detailed analytical text with a lot of facts (!) (with references to sources) about the role of the shadow fleet in financing the war against Ukraine.
Key facts:
- the shadow fleet has already grown to 1,800 vessels last year. This is almost 15% of the world fleet of oil tankers;
- the role of the oil sector in the budget of Russia in 2023 — 26% (1/4 of the budget);
- at the same time, Russia spends 1/3 of its budget on war financing.
Every oil dollar in Russia's budget is, in fact, a dollar aimed at killing Ukrainians.
But there are new data for August:
- 83% of the total volume of Russian marine crude oil was transported by "shadow" tankers (!!!);
- while tankers owned or insured in countries applying a price cap accounted for 19% of the total value of Russian crude exported in August.
And once again confirms that the "shadow fleet" is the main tool for circumventing sanctions:
- in August 2024, Russia's revenue from the export of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) amounted to 636 million euros per day (!);
- revenues from marine crude oil — 186 million euros per day (!!!);
- in August 2024, transshipment of Russian oil from ship to ship (STS) in the amount of EUR 1 billion was carried out in EU waters (with the tacit consent of the EU);
- 73% of these shipments were carried out by tankers insured under G7+;
- the transportation of Russian oil on the STS is severely undermined by sanctions, allowing Russia to circumvent sanctions and price restrictions by splitting cargo among multiple buyers and mixing cheaper Russian oil with non-Russian oil;
- "shadow" tankers, the average age of which was 17 years, carried out ecologically dangerous ship-to-ship transportation in EU waters for a total amount of 273 million euros;
- the EU accounted for 36% (!) of the monthly global export of LNG from Russia, the value of which amounted to 475 million euros;
- the five largest EU countries importing Russian fossil fuels paid Russia 1.2 billion euros this month. Thanks to sanctions relief, member states continue to buy Russian gas and pipeline oil.
Does money not smell? What do you think of such partners of Ukraine, who, in fact, give Russia a resource for the destruction of Ukrainians?
Tankers carrying oil from Russia's largest Baltic oil port changed hands for more than $1.5 billion in August after the invasion of Ukraine, underscoring the significant profits European shipowners have made from selling aging vessels that have ended up in the shadow fleet. .
Of the 60 crude oil and product tankers loaded in Primorsk last month alone, 70% have changed hands since February 2022 (one of them three times), as shipowners benefited from rising demand for older tonnage to support Russian exports. oil
All information is public.
According to vessel tracking data and port agent reports, 29 tankers loaded 21.99 million barrels of Russian crude oil in the week to September 8.
Volume was up from 21.67 million barrels on 29 vessels the previous week.
This means that Russia's daily shipping of crude oil by sea for the week ended September 8 increased by about 40,000 barrels to 3.14 million per day!
The world makes money stupidly. I will not be surprised if famous Ukrainian names appear among those who earn money from the "shadow fleet".
But there is also the first good news
Great Britain imposed sanctions against 10 vessels of the Russian shadow photo (from 1800).
Only 10 ships! And only one country introduced sanctions. What do you think of the scale of the "struggle" with the financing of Russian terrorism?
As we can see, money does not smell and the EU plays a key role in financing the war in Ukraine by "turning a blind eye" to the shadow fleet.
Unfortunately, Ukraine is no better. We have not yet shown an example of the implementation of sanctions and we have not disclosed all the stakeholders, beneficiaries and the names of the vessels, which are not a big secret. As it is not a secret, their routes of movement by seas.
Tell me, how long will we turn a blind eye to the financing of the war with petrodollars and not show an example of the introduction of sanctions?
After all, Ukraine also continues to be silent and pretends that there is no shadow fleet and petrodollars that are killing Ukrainians.
PS It seems that there is only one hope left - for sanctions from GUR and MAGURA (but you can't talk about it out loud;)
