iFact investigation finds 19 ships calling at Georgian ports match criteria of Russia’s 'shadow fleet'
The outlet iFact has published an investigation claiming that 19 vessels believed to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” called at Georgian ports in 2024 and 2025.
According to the investigation, journalists spent two months monitoring ships entering the ports of Batumi, Poti and Kulevi before reaching their conclusions.
“During our observation, it was established that oil tankers arriving from Russian ports regularly switch off their automatic identification systems (AIS), falsify their coordinates and moor in open waters far from the coast while travelling along key oil transportation routes in the Black Sea,” iFact reported.
“Starting on 27 November 2025, we carried out systematic daily monitoring of Georgian ports — Batumi, Kulevi and Poti — and of all tankers transporting crude oil, petroleum products and chemical substances calling at these ports, using the tracking websites marinetraffic.com and globalfishingwatch.org as our main tools.
At the same time, we analysed port archive data to identify tankers that had previously entered Georgian waters. Vessels arriving in Georgia from Russia or from occupied territories of Ukraine were classified as suspicious,” the journalists said.
They added that they examined which flags the suspected vessels were sailing under, where they were registered, whether their names had changed, whether navigation systems had been switched off, whether the ships had international insurance, and which ports they had previously visited.
Additional information was obtained from the websites equasis.org and vesselfinder.com. Vessels meeting at least half of the listed criteria commonly associated with the so-called “shadow fleet” were classified by the journalists as belonging to that category.
What is the “shadow fleet”?
So-called “shadow fleet” vessels typically operate outside established international maritime regulations. They share a number of common characteristics:
- Old and substandard ships: Most of these vessels are more than 15 years old and often lack proper inspection regimes and regular maintenance.
- Opaque ownership: They are frequently owned by shell companies registered in offshore jurisdictions, making it difficult to identify the real owners.
- Lack of proper insurance: Such vessels usually operate without standard industry insurance, relying instead on small, unreliable insurers or sailing without insurance altogether.
- Flag manipulation: Operators regularly change a ship’s flag, registering vessels in countries with weak regulatory oversight — such as Gabon, Eswatini or Panama — or using falsified flag documentation.
The growing use of shadow fleet vessels has raised serious concerns within the international community for several reasons.
- Environmental risks: The use of ageing, poorly maintained and uninsured tankers significantly increases the risk of major oil spills. In the event of an accident, there are often no financial mechanisms in place to fund environmental clean-up or compensate for damage.
- Collision risks: By switching off tracking systems and transmitting false coordinates, these vessels pose a danger to maritime traffic and increase the likelihood of collisions on busy sea routes.
- Security threats: Some shadow fleet vessels are suspected of being involved in hybrid warfare activities, including espionage or the illegal transportation of weapons.
- Undermining sanctions: The scale of the shadow fleet — estimated to account for up to 20% of global oil trade — weakens the effectiveness of international sanctions regimes and regulatory frameworks governing the energy sector.
Russia’s shadow fleet
