We previously reported on the tanker “Bella 1,” IMO number 9230880, allegedly owned by the Turkish-Panamanian firm “Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises S.A.” detained by US authorities in the North Atlantic after the aggressor attempted to “re-register” the vessel under the Russian flag, using fake documents from the “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.”
Then, the Russian “press” claimed that the “owner” of the tanker was the Russian company “Burevestmarine,” registered in Ryazan in July 2025 to Ilya Bugay, who now resides in Moscow.
Bugai is also the CEO of the Moscow-based “Rusneftekhimtorg”, a petroleum product trading company. In 2020, this company earned 4 billion rubles, but revenue subsequently declined sharply. Bugai was also the CEO of the Moscow-based “Kursinvest”, a chicken trader.
Moreover, it has been stated that Bugai is a native of Crimea and allegedly graduated from Taurida National University in 2008.
Furthermore, the aggressor’s “Crimean” propaganda, seeking to “soften” the media coverage surrounding the tanker’s detention, claimed that some of its crew allegedly “held Ukrainian passports”; if this is not simply a fake, then it is clear that these people were recruited on board in the occupied territory, including Crimea.
The most interesting aspect here may be the newly revealed connections of the aforementioned “Rusneftekhimtorg”, which was involved in fuel supplies, including tanker shipments.
Since 2020, a scam involving loans to this structure, as well as to the company “Rechmortrans” from “Nefteprombank”, has been ongoing. In 2023, both companies shared a common scheme with “Diamond Estate”.
Moreover, in 2022, “Diamond Estate”, as media outlets reported, “owned two Moldovan television channels,” previously owned by Igor Chaika, the son of former Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, and Vadim Chubara, a close associate of former Moldovan President Igor Dodon.
And with the arrival of “Diamond Estate”, the press began to link the television channels to the entourage of the pro-Russian and sanctioned Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor.
Media outlets also link “Rusneftekhimtorg” to the activities of Viktor Baransky, a sanctioned Odessa resident who fled to Russia. He previously controlled several crewing companies established by his father, Sergei Baransky.
The Baransky clan also allegedly controlled the aforementioned “Rechmortrans”. According to Moldovan media, Moldovan citizen Alina Samson, niece of Viktor Baransky’s mother, Lilia Darii, founded the Moldovan crewing company “Zolos Shipping”, connected both to Moldovan nominees of the shadow fleet and to the Russian crewing companies “Aquamarine Ship Management”, “Novograin”, and “Novomar Group-Crewing”.
As a reminder, last year our Association exposed the activities of Russian intelligence agencies under the cover of crewing companies and their global networks, including those operating in occupied Crimea.
