February 04, 2025

A Hidden Ecological Threat


A Hidden Ecological Threat
Tanker Volgoneft-212 in 2018. Alexxx1979, Wikimedia Commons.

On December 15, the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 sank on the Kerch Strait, causing an oil spill that stretched for miles along the Black Sea coastline. According to journalists from the independent investigative publication Vazhnye Istory (Important Stories), the tankers were carrying fuel oil to the storage tanker FIRN, which is allegedly involved in the shadow export of Russian oil products. Both Volgoneft vessels were not authorized to operate at sea in December, and one was sailing with expired documents.

However, the two sunken ships are not the only vessels of this type that operate in violation of regulations. 

Volgoneft is a river-sea class of tanker meant to transport oil products from inland Russia to coastal ports via river, where cargo is then transferred to larger sea tankers. Most tankers of this type have winter restrictions in their documentation, as they are designed for calmer river waters and coastal areas with lower waves.

Despite these restrictions, 13 Volgoneft-type tankers went to sea in 2024 and early 2025 during periods when their classification certificates prohibited it. At least seven of these tankers not only traveled in violation of their certificates but also took the same route as the sunken vessels — from Rostov-on-Don to the transshipment area of the Port of Kavkaz in the Black Sea. One tanker, Volgoneft-141, unloaded more than 4,000 tons of fuel oil onto a storage tanker at the Port of Kavkaz just one day after the accident and spill.

In the aftermath of the Kerch Strait disaster, Russian officials denied that the fuel oil spill was related to any export operation, claiming the cargo was being transported for domestic use. But Vazhnye Istory journalists concluded that Volgoneft tankers have been used in shadow export schemes for Russian oil products. Throughout 2024 and January 2025, such tankers delivered 800,000 tons of oil products to storage tankers, more than 80 percent of which were then transferred to sea tankers flying foreign flags.

The largest share — 280,000 tons of fuel oil — was delivered to the Panama-flagged sea tanker FIRN, port records show. It was FIRN that the sunken Volgoneft tankers were supplying, and several other tankers past their service deadlines also unloaded fuel oil there. FIRN is listed as part of the Russian shadow fleet, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate and Greenpeace. This fleet consists of hundreds of vessels allegedly operated by Russia to evade policing following the enactment of the 2022 Russian crude oil price cap sanctions by the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union in response to Russia’s War on Ukraine.

Notably, eleven years ago, Marine Engineering Bureau head Gennady Yegorov warned that Volgoneft-class tankers should not operate at sea carrying heavy oil and oil products at all. By 2012, he wrote, the accident rate for Volgoneft vessels had roughly doubled, to four or five catastrophes per 1,000 ships. Each of the Volgoneft vessels that went to sea against regulations risked a potential environmental catastrophe, said Yevgeny Simonov, an ecologist and expert with the Working Group for the Study of the Environmental Consequences of the War in Ukraine.

You Might Also Like

Making a List
  • January 27, 2025

Making a List

The Ministry of Internal Affairs may be creating a database of LGBT persons to make future prosecutions easier.
Russians Unaffected by War
  • January 06, 2025

Russians Unaffected by War

Verstka uncovered a survey that showed Russians are both exhausted and accustomed to the war in Ukraine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Woe From Wit (bilingual)
June 20, 2017

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

The Little Humpbacked Horse
November 03, 2014

The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

Frogs Who Begged...
November 01, 2010

Frogs Who Begged...

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.

The Samovar Murders
November 01, 2019

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

Russian Rules
November 16, 2011

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

Murder and the Muse
December 12, 2016

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955