At least 76 tankers from Russia's shadow fleet were able to freely pass through NATO waters in the Baltic Sea thanks to a scheme with fake insurance certificates, according to a joint investigation by Danwatch and NRK. The documents were issued by a shell company called Ro Marine, which pretended to be Norwegian but was actually owned by a Russian. The journalists found out that the company did not conduct any financial transactions and had only one person on its staff - an unnamed board member with Bulgarian citizenship. The owner of the company, 41-year-old Andrey Mochalin, worked in the Norwegian insurance industry for many years, but now lives in St. Petersburg.
The insurance certificates were issued on the basis of a license allegedly received in 2016 from the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA). However, this too turned out to be fake. Ro Marine did not even exist that year. The company also claimed that its offices were located in the building of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association in Oslo. The latter repeatedly tried to contact Ro Marine and demanded that the false information about the address on the website and in the registration documents be corrected, but all her requests were ignored. In March, the Norwegian police launched an investigation into possible sanctions circumvention. Charges were brought against Mochalin, an unnamed board member from Bulgaria, and two other Norwegian businessmen who cooperated with Ro Marine. It is not specified whether anyone was detained.
In total, journalists counted at least 255 vessels to which Ro Marine issued fake insurance certificates. And even after the exposure, the company added a new tanker to its register. At least eight oil vessels presented certificates from Ro Marine during inspections in the Gulf of Finland, but no one suspected a fake. Danish authorities intend to contact Norway and other countries whose flags the vessels “insured” by Ro Marine sail under.
Experts interviewed by the investigators said that this precedent undermines the entire international system for preventing environmental disasters at sea. The fact is that insurance companies are required to check ships for compliance with safety standards to reduce the risk of accidents, and Ro Marine did not do this. So the tankers in the Kremlin's shadow fleet may have violated technical requirements at the very least. The Baltic Sea accounts for between a third and a half of Russia's oil exports.
The insurance certificates were issued on the basis of a license allegedly received in 2016 from the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA). However, this too turned out to be fake. Ro Marine did not even exist that year. The company also claimed that its offices were located in the building of the Norwegian Shipowners' Association in Oslo. The latter repeatedly tried to contact Ro Marine and demanded that the false information about the address on the website and in the registration documents be corrected, but all her requests were ignored. In March, the Norwegian police launched an investigation into possible sanctions circumvention. Charges were brought against Mochalin, an unnamed board member from Bulgaria, and two other Norwegian businessmen who cooperated with Ro Marine. It is not specified whether anyone was detained.
In total, journalists counted at least 255 vessels to which Ro Marine issued fake insurance certificates. And even after the exposure, the company added a new tanker to its register. At least eight oil vessels presented certificates from Ro Marine during inspections in the Gulf of Finland, but no one suspected a fake. Danish authorities intend to contact Norway and other countries whose flags the vessels “insured” by Ro Marine sail under.
Experts interviewed by the investigators said that this precedent undermines the entire international system for preventing environmental disasters at sea. The fact is that insurance companies are required to check ships for compliance with safety standards to reduce the risk of accidents, and Ro Marine did not do this. So the tankers in the Kremlin's shadow fleet may have violated technical requirements at the very least. The Baltic Sea accounts for between a third and a half of Russia's oil exports.
