WASHINGTON — The recent US destruction of five Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz has exposed more than the widening confrontation between Washington and Tehran.<\/p>\n
It has highlighted an increasingly intertwined sanctions-evasion system linking Iran and Russia — a network of ships, managers, intermediaries, and trading routes that Ukrainian officials and US sanctions experts say the West can no longer treat as two separate problems.<\/p>\n
Three of the five tankers — Kaviz, Charminar, and Riesco — had direct links to Russia\u2019s shadow oil fleet, according to Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s sanctions commissioner.<\/p>\n
All three transported Russian oil and called at Russian ports, Vlasiuk told RFE\/RL on September 10. Riesco, he said, carried both Russian and Iranian oil and participated in ship-to-ship transfers involving other sanctioned vessels.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia and Iran have a long history of cooperation, and their sanctions-evasion networks increasingly overlap,\u201d Vlasiuk said.<\/p>\n
Philip Luck, director of the Economics Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former deputy chief economist at the US State Department, described the system more bluntly: \u201cThere\u2019s not a Russian shadow fleet and Iranian shadow fleet. There\u2019s one shadow fleet that is facilitating Iranian oil sales and Russian oil sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tankers Tied To Moscow<\/p>\n
Kaviz operated between the Russian ports of Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk and had a history of switching off its automatic identification system, which allows authorities and other vessels to track ships. Vlasiuk linked it to Fractal Marine DMCC, a network involved in moving Russian oil after Western sanctions were imposed.<\/p>\n
Charminar repeatedly called at Russian ports, including Ust-Luga, Primorsk, Vysotsk, and St. Petersburg. Vlasiuk said it was connected to a shipping network controlled by Iranian oil businessman Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani.<\/p>\n
After Britain sanctioned Fractal Marine, vessels connected to the network were transferred to other managers while their Russian oil operations continued, Vlasiuk said.<\/p>\n
Riesco illustrates the two-way nature of the trade. It carried both Russian and Iranian oil and participated in ship-to-ship transfers involving other sanctioned vessels.<\/p>\n
All three tankers are sanctioned by Ukraine and the United States, according to Vlasiuk. Kaviz is also sanctioned by the European Union, Britain, Canada, and Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Vlasiuk did not estimate how much revenue the vessels generated for Russia. Their importance, he said, lies in helping Russian oil reach global markets despite Western restrictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese vessels were part of the infrastructure that enabled Russian oil to keep reaching the global market despite sanctions, allowing Russia to preserve a major source of revenue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Ukraine, that infrastructure is itself a target. \u201cThe same vessels, masters, managers, intermediaries and shipping routes are used to transport both Russian and Iranian oil,\u201d Vlasiuk said.<\/p>\n
One Fleet, Two Oil Trades<\/p>\n
Luck said the implications extend beyond the three ships because Russia and Iran sell oil to many of the same markets. That creates a challenge for sanctions policymakers: measures aimed at one country\u2019s oil trade may affect the other because the logistics are shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo anything, if you want to put more pressure on Iran, you\u2019re gonna be putting more pressure on Russia,\u201d Luck said. \u201cAnd if you put more pressure on Russia, you\u2019re putting more pressure on Iran. It\u2019s the exact same problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue has become more urgent as Washington combines economic pressure on Tehran with direct military action. The US says the Iranian tankers were part of a shadow network helping finance Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies. The strikes followed Iranian attacks on US naval forces, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that Washington will respond to further attacks.<\/p>\n
The confrontation has also increased pressure on energy markets. Washington and Tehran are seeking influence over the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies passed before the war.<\/p>\n
For Kyiv, the tanker strikes show why maritime networks have become an increasingly important sanctions target. \u201cAs long as this infrastructure remains operational, opportunities to evade sanctions will remain,\u201d Vlasiuk said.<\/p>\n
Ukraine Sees A Wider Russia-Iran Link<\/p>\n
The episode comes as Washington considers expanding its ability to target Russia\u2019s energy revenues and the networks helping Moscow evade sanctions.<\/p>\n
The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 passed the Senate on August 7 by 86-11. It targets Russia\u2019s shadow fleet, imposes additional sanctions on Russian officials and financial institutions, and authorizes the president to impose duties of up to 100 percent on goods from major purchasers of Russian oil and gas and countries involved in sanctions evasion. It also extends the Iran Sanctions Act for five years.<\/p>\n
The bill\u2019s future in the House remains uncertain, but Ukraine says it could provide leverage against Russia, whose energy revenues remain central to financing the war.<\/p>\n
At a September 10 briefing hosted by the Bipartisan Congressional Ukraine Caucus, Ukraine\u2019s Charge d\u2019Affaires in Washington, Denys Sienik, urged lawmakers to view the measure as a source of leverage rather than a finished instrument.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the decisions, major decisions, indeed require compromise,\u201d Sienik said. He warned that Russia continues earning substantial oil and gas revenues while producing weapons and recruiting soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat message will it send to Ukrainians, and what message will it send to Russia if this does not pass?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Former State Department sanctions coordinator Daniel Fried offered a similar assessment. \u201cIf the US authority would increase diplomacy to end Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, it should increase the leverage it\u2019s using against Russia,\u201d he said. \u201cNow is the time to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fried cited the Obama administration\u2019s Iran policy, when Congress pressured the administration to threaten countries buying Iranian oil while allowing waivers for nations that significantly reduced purchases over six-month periods. China and India protested but ultimately reduced their imports.<\/p>\n
He said the current bill could likewise give Washington room to negotiate with major buyers rather than automatically impose maximum penalties. Fried acknowledged questions about how the bill\u2019s thresholds would be calculated and how authorities would determine the destination of Russian oil.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut with this bill, if it passes, there is something to work with,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is leverage. If it doesn\u2019t pass, there is nothing, zero.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fried said sanctions need not eliminate every barrel of Russian or Iranian oil from global markets. Their goal is to reduce the revenue available to sustain war. Forcing Russia to sell at lower prices, he said, can also reduce money flowing to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
That approach places the shadow fleet at the center of the sanctions debate. The objective is not simply to stop individual ships, but to make the networks moving sanctioned oil more expensive, unreliable, and difficult to replace.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s argument is that those networks are already shared by Russia and Iran. The three tankers identified by Kyiv offer a case study: vessels moving Russian oil, Iranian oil, or both; managers shifting between sanctioned networks; and ship-to-ship transfers helping cargoes reach international markets.<\/p>\n
As Washington escalates pressure on Tehran and considers additional measures against Moscow, that convergence could become increasingly important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON — The recent US destruction of five Iranian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz has exposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,87,43,6803,1593,48087,40,38,41,39,1594],"class_list":["post-612927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-news","tag-news-analysis","tag-russia","tag-the-rundown-stories","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}