A network of nearly 50 companies has been exporting sanctioned Russian oil while concealing its origins, with traders linked to Azerbaijan playing a central role.
Shadow Fleet Facilitating Russian Oil Exports
The Financial Times reported Friday that 48 ostensibly independent firms operating from different physical addresses appear to be working together as part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet.”
The network was discovered due to all firms utilizing the same private email server, according to the FT.
The newspaper identified 442 web domains relying on the same mail server, “mx.phoenixtrading.ltd.” These domain names were then matched to companies listed in Russian and Indian customs documents as shippers of Russian crude.
One example cited is Foxton FZCO, a Dubai-based company whose domain uses the shared server and which exported $5.6 billion worth of Russian oil.
In total, companies in the network have shipped more than $90 billion in Russian crude, though the FT suggests the actual figure is likely higher.
Russia’s oil exporters have increasingly relied on a shadow fleet of tankers and intermediaries to circumvent Western sanctions imposed following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the latest available Russian customs data analyzed by the FT, covering up to November 2024, over 80% of Rosneft’s seaborne exports were handled through this apparent network.
Sergey Vakulenko, a fellow at the Berlin-based Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, noted the use of numerous front companies echoes practices from the 1990s. He was quoted as saying, “That’s how fortunes were made and taxes dodged by soon to become oligarchs,” adding, “But it’s a big surprise that one network has become so big and important to Rosneft. I’d have expected more sock puppets.”
Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times’ Russian service.
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