Russia's Shadow Fleet: Systematic Sanctions Evasion Modeled on North Korean Tactics (warontherocks.com)

• Russia's shadow fleet exceeds 1,000 tankers systematically evading sanctions.
• North Korea demonstrated similar tactics from the 2000s using flags of convenience and fraudulent registries.
• The article recommends sanctioning registries that flag shadow fleet vessels to raise the cost of evasion.

"This article analyzes how Russia, after invading Ukraine, built a massive shadow fleet by exploiting the same gaps in international ship registries that North Korea had previously used for sanctions evasion. Both countries employ flags of convenience, frequent flag changes, and fraudulent registries operated by private firms. Despite extensive documentation by UN experts and researchers, these vulnerabilities persist. The author proposes sanctioning registries that continue to flag shadow fleet vessels to raise the cost of evasion."