BRUSSELS — Ships illegally transporting sanctioned Russian oil are still operating with insurance ultimately backed by European financial markets, according to analysts and a lawmaker tracking the tankers.
Russia’s so-called shadow fleet uses intermediaries and, ultimately, “European and Western banking organizations” to channel money and “basically wash the insurance through these middle hands,” said Ville Niinistö, chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and a leading lawmaker pushing for tougher action against the vessels.
The links expose a problem facing Brussels as EU governments prepare a 21st sanctions package aimed at the companies helping Moscow keep oil moving and fund its war on Ukraine. The infrastructure the bloc wants to shut down — including insurers, banks and maritime service providers — may still run through Europe’s own financial markets.
Russia has continued to export oil through a network of aging tankers, opaque ownership structures and alternative service providers despite successive rounds of sanctions targeting its fleet. While most Western insurers withdrew from Russia after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, shadow fleet vessels have continued to obtain coverage through Russian insurers, shell companies and alternative arrangements outside traditional insurance markets.
