This is a remarkable long read pulled together by a team of CNN journalists spread across the world. Effectively, they are saying that James Bond style Russian agents now travel in oil tankers around the world and conduct in-depth surveillance and espionage:
“Russian personnel with links to the country’s military and security services have engaged in spying in European waters while working covertly on ships carrying Russian oil…
Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has built up a so-called shadow fleet of hundreds of tankers. These vessels carry Russia’s oil from its Baltic and Black Sea ports despite Western sanctions, earning the Kremlin hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
In recent months, some of these ships – often registered to unrelated countries – have acquired extra crew members shortly before leaving port, according to Ukrainian intelligence. CNN has seen two crew lists for these vessels in which the staff is predominantly non-Russian – but the documents also feature a pair of Russian names, and their Russian passport details, at the bottom of the roster.”
Leaving aside the commercial aspect of selling Russian oil (which we in India are in no position to condemn considering how much of this oil has come to India), much of the spying for the Russian seems to be done by a private security group. CNN writes:
“CNN has established that several of these men are employed by a secretive Russian company called Moran Security…. Moran is a private security firm with ties to Russian military and intelligence, Western intelligence sources said…
Moran Security Group was founded in 2009 and had extensive ties with the infamous Wagner private military contractor, as well as Russia’s military and intelligence services, according to Western intelligence sources.
Two previous Moran directors, Evgeny Sidorov and Vadim Gusev, founded the Slavonic Corps in 2013, the private military company from which Wagner emerged. Wagner Telegram channels have featured Moran personnel at sea, and more than a decade ago the company was involved in counter-piracy off Somalia.
The social media profiles of some Moran personnel also show they were linked to Wagner, which was effectively liquidated after its then boss Yevgeny Prigozhin launched an abortive revolt in Russia in 2023.
On its website, the Moran group says it seeks “active-duty or retired officers who have served in special forces units (GRU, airborne troops, naval commandos) and who have completed at least two deployments.” The GRU is Russia’s military intelligence service.
Moran’s president Vyacheslav Kalashnikov is a retired lieutenant colonel of Russia’s FSB intelligence service, while two of the managers listed on its website are former commanders of nuclear submarines….
The firm was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2024 for providing “armed security services” for Russian state-owned enterprises…Moran personnel have been placed on multiple tankers in Russia’s shadow fleet and are frequently the only Russians on board…
One Western intelligence source added that, on one occasion, Moran personnel took photographs of European military installations from one of the shadow fleet vessels…
CNN presented the findings of Ukrainian and Western intelligence that Moran operates in coordination with Russian intelligence and is involved in espionage and sabotage across Europe to Alexey Badikov, who the US Treasury had listed as the company’s CEO. Reached by phone Badikov told CNN he is the deputy director of the Moran Security Group and is based “mostly” in St. Petersburg, but declined to comment on either accusation….”
So what exactly is Russia trying to achieve with its military personnel and Moran Security personnel aboard these oil tankers? By tracking the journey of a sanctioned oil tanker named the Boracay which travels from the port of Primorsk (near St Petersburg) to Vadinar (in Western India) in September, CNN tries to give its readers a sense of what is going on here. The CNN article has maps, satellite images and graphics of this journey and all the weird and wonderful things that the crew of the Boracay get upto during this eventful journey. In case you are too busy to read this riveting article here is a teaser:
“The Boracay made headlines in September as it carried a cargo of Russian oil to India. Two days after leaving Primorsk, on September 22, the ship was off Denmark’s coast just as a series of drone sightings disrupted traffic at Copenhagen airport. Other drones flew near Danish military bases.
At the time, Copenhagen police said they were investigating whether ships in the area had launched the drones but would not name which ones.
Ship tracking data shows the Boracay traveled south along Denmark’s western coast on the evening of September 24, when other drones were reported flying north of the city of Esbjerg and near several nearby airports.
A Western intelligence source told CNN, “the coincidence between the incident and the presence of the vessel in the area can be regarded as suspicious.”
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