U.S. Treasury Lifts Sanctions on Three Russian Vessels
The U.S. Treasury has lifted sanctions on three Russian cargo ships that were on its blacklist for links to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The vessels in question are the container feeders Fesco Magadan and Fesco Moneron - both owned by a division of sanctioned shipping company PJSC DSMP - and the freighter SV Nikolay, linked to sanctioned shipowner Alfa-Leasing LLC.
Treasury did not provide a reason for the removal of the vessels from the sanctions list, which is a rare step for ships linked to Russia. After the Trump administration's recent sanctions waiver for limited purchases of Russian oil, the delisting has raised questions - but Treasury said that the action was limited to three ships only.
"SDN List removals are not indicative of a broader shift in US-Russia policy," a Treasury spokesperson told the Kyiv Independent and RFE. "The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC's ability to designate and add persons to the SDN List, but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law."
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None of the three delisted hulls have recently registered changes in ownership or management, per Equasis, and they are still linked to sanctioned shipowners. Fesco Magadan is engaged in short-sea trading between Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, on opposite sides of the Sea of Okhotsk. Fesco Moneron operates on the same route, but also serves small outposts in the far northern reaches of Chukotka. SV Nikolay has no operational relation to this trade lane: the freighter is engaged in commerce between Russian-controlled ports in the Black Sea and the port of Samsun, Turkey. Ukraine suspects the vessel of involvement in exporting stolen grain from Russian-occupied territories.
Top image: VesselFinder / Henk Jungerius