How Putin's Shadow Fleet Is Using Fake Identities To Evade UK Seizures
Russian oil tankers are reportedly using 'AIS handshakes' to spoof their identities and evade international sanctions by mimicking smaller vessels. This maritime deception allows the 'shadow fleet' to bypass tracking systems and continue transporting oil despite Western restrictions.
Why it matters
The use of technological manipulation to circumvent sanctions highlights the difficulty of enforcing international economic policy in the maritime sector.
Russia's "shadow fleet" is using an old maritime tracking system to hide sanctioned oil tankers from authorities and avoid possible seizures by Britain and other European countries.The tankers are manipulating their Automatic Identification System (AIS), a technology designed to help authorities and ships track vessels at sea, according to The iPaper. The system broadcasts information such as a ship's identity, location, course, port of origin and destination.One of the methods now being used is known as an AIS "handshake". In this, a sanctioned tanker temporarily takes the identity of another, smaller vessel, sometimes a fishing boat. The two vessels meet at sea, exchange their AIS details and then move away.Authorities who are monitoring shipping traffic consider the sanctioned tanker an ordinary fishing vessel, while the smaller ship appears to be the tanker.
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