Tankers burned near Kerch were engaged in illegal business
Former Minister of Transport of Crimea Anatoly Tsurkin described a scheme for illegal fuel transshipment, which was most likely carried out by the crews of Tanzanian-flagged tankers Maestro and Kandy that caught fire yesterday near the Kerch Strait.
An illegal scheme always comes with risks, the former minister said in his blog, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to Tsurkin, illegal transshipment has been going on in neutral waters between Crimea and Kuban since the Ukrainian period. Ships located outside the 12-mile zone were used as warehouses where cargo was transported and resold at an inflated price. This allowed offshore companies to minimize costs.
“Many minimize their income, so they export cargo at the lowest possible price. The buyer in such schemes is offshore companies. A contract is concluded with an offshore company at a reduced price, of course, the budget receives minimal taxes, after which the goods leave the territorial waters of Russia on the ship and move to the “womb” and are simply resold there, at another inflated price.
In all these schemes there is no safety control, survivability control, compliance with standards, etc. Since these mother ships almost never come into port, they are always dangling at anchor at sea and performing their functions as floating warehouses.
For pouring/unloading services, an average of $2-4 per ton is charged, this is several times cheaper than going to the port and doing it officially.
Previously, these “wombs” were provided with everything necessary (water, food, etc.) by entrepreneurs from that distant Crimean Ukraine until 2014; now many of them have been integrated into the Russian legal field. Most of it went to Ukraine and from there supplies this fleet with everything it needs,” Tsurkin said.
PolitNavigator previously reported that two tankers transshipping fuel caught fire in international waters near the entrance to the Kerch Strait. Ten people have died in the incident , and another ten are missing. The remaining 12 crew members of the two vessels were rescued, but the fire could not be extinguished due to the large amount of fuel on board the tankers.
The tankers that burned near Kerch were engaged in illegal business.