Tanker seized by US is linked to Moldovan oligarch and ally of former Ukrainian pro-Russian politician

The Marinera (formerly known as Bella 1), a tanker detained by the US Coast Guard on 7 January, is reported to have ties to a fugitive Moldovan oligarch and a former Ukrainian politician from Odesa.

Source: an investigation by Current Time, a Russian-language TV channel set up by Radio Liberty and VOA, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The journalists have established that the tanker is linked to two "friends of the Kremlin" – Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor and Viktor Baranskyi, a former member of Odesa City Council from the pro-Russian Opposition Platform – For Life party, which is banned in Ukraine.

During the weeks it was being pursued, the tanker changed owners from a Turkish company to a Russian firm, Burevestmarin, and obtained permission to fly the Russian flag.

The investigation found that Ilya Bugai, a Russian citizen from Chita who is listed as Burevestmarin's CEO, also heads Rusneftekhimtorg, a Moscow-based company which supplies fuel, including tanker fuel. The firm's customers include several foreign companies, and one thing they have in common is that their registered owners are women living in Moldova.

At least two of the women's names have previously come up in an investigation by Verstka, an independent Russian news outlet operating in exile, into a shadow tanker fleet reportedly linked to Viktor Baranskyi. In 2021, organisations associated with him were sanctioned by the US for transporting Venezuelan oil.

Rusneftekhimtorg also used a tanker thought to be linked to Baranskyi and traded with a company close to Baranskyi's informal holding company.

The investigation has also established that Rusneftekhimtorg took out a loan from Russia's Nefteprombank, which later lost its licence and went bankrupt. In settlement of the debt, Rusneftekhimtorg transferred claims against a third company, Diamond Estate, to the lender. Diamond Estate has owned two TV channels in Moldova since 2022 and has been linked to people close to Shor. Shor has also been suspected of siphoning off funds from Nefteprombank, but no action was taken against him.

In recent years Shor is known to have been based in Moscow, where he seeks to bring the political forces he controls in Moldova to power with Russian backing. Payments to members of his network are channelled through a Russian bank, Promsvyazbank.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Baranskyi faced charges of treason, supporting Russian forces and misappropriating barges owned by a shipping company. He was later stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship and his seat on the city council. He fled to Russia, where he joined a new project led by Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian businessman and pro-Russian politician to whose daughter Putin is godfather.

Background:

• On 7 January, the US military took control of two tankers, including a Russian-flagged vessel it had been pursuing for more than two weeks. The vessels have been accused of breaching sanctions. The crews may face trial in the US.
• US Vice President JD Vance said the Bella 1 (later re-registered in Russia as the Marinera) was merely posing as a Russian tanker to avoid accountability.
• Russia's Foreign Ministry claimed that US President Donald Trump has decided to release two Russians from the detained tanker. Kyiv is looking into reports that many of the crew members are Ukrainian citizens.

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