WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Helsinki Commission Chairman Senator Roger Wicker (MS), Co-Chairman Representative Joe Wilson (SC-02), Ranking Member Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Ranking Member Representative Steve Cohen (TN-09) sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent asking that the United States impose further sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet of vessels used to ship sanctioned oil, damage critical infrastructure, and engage in other illicit activity. The recommended sanctions would reinforce European Union efforts to hold Russia accountable for its war on Ukraine and other illegal practices by sanctioning one hundred additional Russian-linked vessels and enabling organizations.
The letter reads:
Dear Secretaries Rubio and Bessent,
As Vladimir Putin continues Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, we urge you to impose further sanctions on Russia’s “shadow fleet.” The European Union recently expanded its sanctions to include an additional one hundred Russian-linked vessels and associated enabling organizations involved in this vast illicit network. We hope that, with your leadership, the United States will follow suit, acting in concert with our allies and ensuring that Russia can no longer evade accountability.
We commend the Rosneft and Lukoil sanctions, and we support your efforts to persuade our European allies to cease consumption of Russian petroleum products. Sanctioning Russia’s shadow fleet would assist both efforts. The shadow fleet is a financial lifeline for Putin. Without it, Putin’s ability to fund his war would be placed in question.
To continue selling its oil and gas in violation of U.S. and international sanctions, Russia changes tankers’ names, sails them under different national flags, and hides their locations. The vessels comprising this shadow fleet are frequently old, dilapidated, insufficiently insured, and helmed by inexperienced crew. The shadow fleet not only supplies Putin funding to prolong his war, but it also risks damaging critical infrastructure and environmental catastrophe.
The tanker operators, financiers, flag registries, foreign countries, and opaque shell companies that facilitate Russia’s shadow fleet are complicit in sanctions evasion, enabling Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine, threatening critical undersea pipelines and cables, and endangering global maritime security and the environment. Many of the same vessels have also shipped sanctioned Iranian and Venezuelan oil.
Putin should know that we will punish his relentless attacks on Ukraine—and his targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure—with real consequences. We should also seek to close the loopholes by which he attempts to evade those consequences. Expanding the current shadow fleet sanctions to match those of our European partners is the next necessary step to cut off the resources Russia is using to fund its merciless attacks on Ukraine.
Sincerely,
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