Sanctioned tankers increasingly switch to Russian flag after Western boardings

Nearly 70 dark fleet tankers have moved to Russia's flag since May 2025, 40 of them after the US, UK and France began boarding vessels with fraudulent registrations in December, according to Windward data reported by Splash247. The analytics firm expects at least 120 falsely flagged, sanctioned tankers to reflag to Russia in the coming months. Clarksons Research figures cited in the report show the Russian registry grew by more than 25% over the past year. Splash247 says roughly half of the reflagged tankers are beneficially owned by state-controlled Sovcomflot, and names Akkord, Saga and Topaz among recent switches.

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