{"id":682800,"date":"2026-01-08T18:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682800\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T18:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:47:23","slug":"u-s-tanker-seizures-put-pressure-on-russian-shadow-fleet-and-putins-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682800\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. tanker seizures put pressure on Russian ‘shadow fleet’ and Putin’s economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker<\/a> threatened new pressure on the \u201cshadow fleet\u201d<\/a> that has helped prop up President Vladimir Putin\u2019<\/a>s economy.<\/p>\n

The American operation to take over the Bella 1<\/a> in the North Atlantic after a high-seas chase that began off Venezuela was \u201ca gross violation\u201d of maritime law, Russia\u2019s foreign ministry said Thursday. It expressed \u201cregret and concern\u201d over Washington\u2019s \u201creadiness to generate acute international crisis situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The saga has highlighted the mixed response in the country to the fallout from the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Moscow officially condemned the attack, its messaging has been restrained.<\/p>\n

Russia may be reluctant to anger Trump at a precarious moment for the Ukraine peace talks<\/a>, especially as his approach to Venezuela appears to validate its view of the world as divided into great-power spheres of influence. And despite the complications for the Kremlin and its war effort, some influential voices have expressed jealousy at the effectiveness of the American operation.<\/p>\n

Out of the shadows<\/p>\n

After a weekslong chase across the Atlantic, the U.S. took over the Bella 1 on Wednesday in an operation that defied Russian warnings.<\/p>\n

The ship had changed its name to the Marinera and hoisted a Russian flag after escaping the U.S. blockade of Venezuela last month.<\/a><\/p>\n

On the U.S. sanctions list since June 2024, it was a \u201cposter child\u201d for the shadow fleet operations, said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd\u2019s List Intelligence, a maritime data analysis company.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has operated out of Iran, out of Russia, out of Venezuela. It\u2019s done all of it, and it\u2019s done all of it while cycling through various false identities, false flags, with questionable or no insurance. It\u2019s exactly what the shadow fleet is there to do. It\u2019s to operate in the shadows,\u201d Meade told NBC News in a phone interview Thursday.<\/p>\n

Ships like it smuggle oil for countries facing international sanctions, such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran, and often conceal or spoof their location data. Many are barely seaworthy and often engage in ship-to-ship transfers of their cargo while at sea in an effort to obscure the oil\u2019s origin.<\/p>\n

Data from the International Maritime Organization ship registry shows that the tanker\u2019s registered owner is a company called Burevestmarine LLC, headquartered in Russia\u2019s western Ryazan region. The company appears in Russia\u2019s state commercial register and lists Ilya Bugai as the company\u2019s director. NBC News could not immediately identify a way to contact Bugai.<\/p>\n

Russia has faced a slew of new sanctions in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine, including on its oil. It has resorted to using the shadow fleet to sell its discounted crude oil to allies to keep afloat its economy, which has required enormous military investment to sustain the war.<\/p>\n

According to the Kyiv School of Economics\u2019 <\/a>year-end analysis, Russia\u2019s shadow fleet continues to play a key role in transporting Russian oil. Its \u201cRussian Oil Tracker\u201d estimates that 173 Russian shadow fleet tankers carrying crude oil and oil products departed Russian ports and engaged in ship-to-ship transfers in the month of November.<\/p>\n

\"AA video released Wednesday shows the U.S. Coast Guard boarding the Bella 1 tanker.@Sec_Noem via X<\/p>\n

For years, Kyiv has been calling for a greater crackdown on Russia\u2019s shadow fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin uses these tankers to finance his war, and most of these vessels are old, poorly maintained, and operate without any oversight,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in late 2024. His foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Wednesday<\/a> that Ukraine welcomed the tanker\u2019s seizure and Trump\u2019s \u201cact, not fear\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

And while the seizure of the Bella 1 is unlikely to break the Russian economy, it adds a layer of complexity for the Kremlin and leaves the fate of other tankers uncertain.<\/p>\n

At least three other sanctioned oil tankers that were operating near Venezuela in recent weeks have also changed their flags to Russia\u2019s, according to the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is increasingly taking direct control of its export capabilities,\u201d said Meade. \u201cAnd certainly in the last four months, we have seen a rapid increase of shadow fleet ships flagging to Russia. Now, given that they were unable to protect the Marinera, the question is, Will shadow fleet operators be quite so willing to move into Russia, and will Russia really want to keep pursuing that agenda of taking direct control of the shadow fleet?\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot now depends on whether the U.S., and to some extent the European Union and the U.K., are going to be prepared to execute seizures like the one conducted on Wednesday to try and disrupt those exports via shadow fleet ships.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know whether this was an anomaly or the start of a pattern of more robust enforcement,\u201d Meade said.<\/p>\n

What it means for Ukraine<\/p>\n

That uncertainty could be the reason behind Russia\u2019s muted response to the tanker seizure so far.<\/p>\n

While some Russian lawmakers have called it \u201cpiracy on the high seas,\u201d Russia\u2019s foreign ministry appealed for \u201chumane\u201d treatment of the tanker\u2019s crew even as it urged Washington \u201cto return to compliance with the fundamental norms and principles of international maritime navigation\u201d on Thursday.<\/p>\n

There has been no reaction from the Kremlin\u2019s spokesperson or Putin himself.<\/p>\n

Moscow may want to be careful not to offend Trump while he is negotiating a peace deal in Ukraine that at times has seen him support Russia\u2019s hard-line demands.<\/a><\/p>\n

It could also explain why Putin has not personally addressed the U.S. attack on Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\"RussianRussian President Vladimir Putin.Mikhail Metzel \/ AFP – Getty Images<\/p>\n

The operation to remove Maduro is a blow to the Kremlin, depriving it of a longtime ally. But what Moscow\u2019s foreign ministry condemned as an \u201cact of armed aggression\u201d left some of its influential military bloggers jealous of Washington\u2019s success. <\/p>\n

When Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he hoped to take Kyiv and capture Zelenskyy in as little as three days, expecting little resistance from Ukraine’s army. His plan centered on seizing the Hostomel airfield<\/a>, a crucial staging post for an assault on the capital, but Putin\u2019s forces got bogged down and eventually withdrew.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s removal of Maduro, which took hours and resulted in no U.S. deaths, drew admiration and unfavorable comparisons from Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cZ bloggers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMost likely, our own special military operation was conceived in much the same way: fast, effective,\u201d wrote prominent channel Two Majors, referring to the Kremlin\u2019s term for its war in Ukraine. Another prominent Z-blogger, Voenny Osvedomitel, called it a \u201cmodel military operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the focus on Venezuela could help distract from Putin\u2019s reticence to strike a deal with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

And Trump\u2019s stated desire to dominate the Western Hemisphere lends validation to the ideas underpinning the Kremlin\u2019s war: that great powers should be entitled to spheres of influence. In Putin\u2019s eyes, at least, Russia\u2019s sphere includes former Soviet states like Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker threatened new pressure on the \u201cshadow fleet\u201d that has helped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":682801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332],"class_list":{"0":"post-682800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115860972825389377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}