A recent investigation prepared by the Dutch project Follow the Money He has discovered that part of the ghost fleet of Russian oil tankers has been formed Thanks to the help of western countries, that have supplied their old vessels to the country led by Putin to transport oil and elude international sanctions.
In total, according to their estimates, total sales increased to 6,000 million dollars (equivalent to 5,758,800,000 euros) and at least 230 of these vessels They have been sold since the beginning of the conflict.
The countries that have delivered part of their old fleet to Putin are Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium and Greece. According to the investigation, at least these vessels constitute a third of the fleet in the shadow of Russia, which facilitates that Putin continues to dodge the sanctions and continue to supply oil (which helps generate benefits that Russia later uses against Ukraine).
In fact, as collected Follow The Money21 of the 35 countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia have continued to feed Putin’s ghost fleet, receiving in return great sums of money for their vessels “Old, oxidized and dangerous.”
The main reason why these western countries help Russia in this regard is fundamentally economic, because after the announcement of international sanctions The price and value of the tankers shot. “Many European shipowners had old oil tankers who thought they would not be sold at a good price. But suddenly, their value doubled and rushed to sell them,” he defends.
In total, Putin’s ghost fleet is composed of about 600 tankers who, according to KSE calculations, They have about 70% of their oil. The countries that have collaborated the most in this issue have been Greece (127 ships), the United Kingdom (22 ships), Germany (11 ships) and Norway (8 ships).
