FT: Russia expands fleet as crackdown on stateless vessels intensifies

The number of ships sailing under the Russian flag has grown by a third as Moscow keeps fossil fuel exports flowing despite western sanctions, Financial Times notes.

Russia’s fleet of ships sailing under its flag has grown by more than a third since January last year, as Moscow takes a bolder approach to keep oil and gas flowing in defiance of western sanctions.

Analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air published on Friday showed that the number of ships registering under the Russian flag increased by 36 per cent from the start of January 2025 to 382 vessels by the end of June 2026.

The shift comes as Europe and the US have stepped up enforcement against stateless vessels, as they increase efforts to squeeze Russia’s fossil fuel revenues. They have detained at least 23 shadow fleet ships sailing under so-called “false” flags since December 2024, according to maritime analyst Windward AI.

More than 80 per cent of the vessels that had joined the registry since the beginning of 2025 were already under sanctions, CREA found. Many of the new vessels were oil tankers or ocean-going exporting ships. The number of vessels flying “false” flags fell from 101 in October 2025 to 45 by the end of June 2026.

“The Russian flag registry has become a one-way refuge for sanctioned vessels: for every ship that leaves, roughly nine enter,” said Luke Wickenden, energy analyst at CREA.

All ships must fly a national flag, making them subject to that country’s maritime rules and regulations. Flag registries are not always government-run bodies and can also be privately run organisations certified by the state.

Heavy pressure on flag states by US and EU sanctions bodies has caused several to “de-flag” ships, leaving them stateless and therefore open to being detained. Cameroon cut more than 30 ships from its registry, allowing the UK to board the sanctioned tanker Smyrtos in June.

With the greater enforcement against stateless vessels, Moscow has actively encouraged more of the sanctioned fleet of tankers that move its oil to join its domestic fleet by issuing a presidential decree in June to make it easier for ships to register under the Russian flag.

This makes it easier for the ships to come under Russian protection. In January, US officials reported that a Russian submarine had been in the area when the US seized Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera. Moscow later denounced the detention as a violation of international maritime law. Still, in recent months there has been a slowdown in ships signing up to the Russian-flag registry.

More than 50 new vessels have listed under the flag of Equatorial Guinea, which “reopened” its flag registry this year according to a letter sent to the International Maritime Organization in July. All of the ships are certified as seaworthy by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, suggesting they will ship cargoes from Russia, according to Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.

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