Every day, Russian tankers carry billions of dollars' worth of oil across the Baltic Sea. Despite sweeping Western sanctions, this trade continues to fuel the Kremlin's war machine. An investigation by LRT, 15min, Eesti Ekspress, and Nekā personīga reveals how a network of companies in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia is helping to keep Moscow's 'shadow fleet' running.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/52882455

An investigation by LRT, 15min, Eesti Ekspress, and Nekā personīga found that between June 2024 and March 2025, the bunker tankers Rina and Zircone conducted 286 ship-to-ship operations, refuelling 177 oil and oil product tankers, of which at least 159 had called at Russian ports shortly before or after these transfers.

In April 2024, Fast Bunkering had to deny allegations once again, this time about supplying fuel to the Russian shadow fleet. An investigation by the Swedish broadcaster SVT revealed that ships owned by these Estonian and Latvian companies had, over the course of two months, supplied fuel to more than 50 oil tankers travelling to and from Russian ports across international waters near Gotland.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Dubai became a haven for companies seeking to operate in the EU market while remaining difficult to trace. Access to corporate registries in the United Arab Emirates is extremely limited, often making it impossible to identify the ultimate beneficiaries of companies.

Fast Bunkering isn’t the only company providing bunkering services that help transport Russian oil around the world. According to the financial analytics firm S&P Global, over the 12 months before April 2024, at least 3,100 refuelling operations involving Russia’s shadow fleet tankers had occurred near the coasts of Malta, Greece, Spain (Gibraltar), the Netherlands, and other European countries.