OFAC adds more ships to sanctions list

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added nine more ships to its extensive shipping sanctions list. The vessels in question are accused of shipping weapons from Iran to Russia. 

The ships – all Russian-flagged – are the Boris Kustodiev, Port Olya-3, Port Olya-4, Kompozitor Rakhmaninov, Omskiy-103, Omskiy-119, Vafa, Vafa-1 and Zakamsk. which the US has tracked regularly transiting the Caspian Sea between Iran and Russia.

“Today, the United States and our allies are taking concerted action in response to Iran’s reckless decision to proliferate ballistic missiles to Russia for use in its war of aggression against Ukraine, despite the censure from the international community in response to Iran’s provision of one-way attack UAVs to Russia, and the ample evidence of the destruction of civilian infrastructure caused by Russia’s use of such UAVs,” said deputy secretary of the treasury Wally Adeyemo. “Iran has opted to intensify its involvement in Russia’s illegal war, and the United States, along with our partners, will continue to stand with Ukraine.”

In related news, the UK has also taken further steps to clamp down on Russia’s shadow fleet by sanctioning 10 ships. The ships have been operating with great frequency to transport as much Russian oil as possible. Three of the sanctioned vessels – Nikolay Zuyev, NS Asia, and Zaliv Aniva – have collectively carried more than $5bn worth of Russian oil since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, according to data from the UK government.

As a result of the sanctions, the 10 ships will now be barred from entering UK ports and will be refused access to the UK ship register. This brings the total number of shadow fleet ships under UK sanctions to 25.