On February 1, the aggressor’s “Crimean” propaganda returned to the topic of the tanker “Marinera,” also known as “Bella 1,” IMO number 9230880, detained in early January in the North Atlantic by the US military. Before this, in an attempt to avoid capture, the ship’s crew painted the Russian flag on the side of the vessel.
The tanker itself, using fake documents from the “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping,” was listed as “sailing under the Russian flag,” with its home port in Sochi, allegedly owned by the Ryazan company “Burevestmarin,” registered in July 2025 to “former Crimean resident” Ilya Bugay, who now lives in Moscow.
Now, “Crimean media” are persistently showcasing a certain “member of the tanker ‘Marinera’ crew, Maxim Karpenko,” allegedly living in Kerch and brought to Crimea via Istanbul and Moscow.
At the same time, Karpenko himself, who allegedly spent 20 days under American control, stated right at the Simferopol train station that he was “very grateful” to the Crimean governor Sergei Aksyonov, who “was maximally involved in this issue, raising it with all authorities so that we could be safely returned home.”
Meanwhile, the propaganda claims that “another Russian” from the crew, Arsen Torposhyan, was allegedly returned to Astrakhan. It should be noted that in reality, the US authorities released all members of the “Marinera” crew at once, except for the captain and the first mate, simultaneously, without any requests or petitions from anyone.
We would also like to point out that there were other crew members on board the vessel who were connected to the occupied peninsula, about whom the aggressor’s propaganda remains silent – it is highly likely that they did not want to return to the Russia-controlled territory.
We also note that the aggressor does not specify the shipboard positions of Torposhyan and Karpenko, and in the heart-wrenching stories about “going to the toilet at gunpoint of American automatic weapons,” they do not mention the actual maritime biographies of the current repatriates.
Thus, it is highly probable that Torposhyan and Karpenko were precisely those “dogs of war” on the ships, controlled by Russian military intelligence under the guise of “temporary crew members” in the position of “Technician,” about whom our Association recently published an investigation, which has already received a response from the European Commission, from a number of maritime administrations, and from Lloyd’s.
Let us recall that the Russian military is now placing two such “sailors,” without experience in shipping, but with a background in the army or in punitive structures, on almost all tankers of their shadow fleet to carry out various provocations.
In this context, it is clear why Karpenko suddenly gushed with gratitude specifically to the gauleiter Aksyonov – unlike the US authorities, this collaborator has contacts among the Russian special services.
And the current repatriate himself actually had two prospects after his release – either an “accident,” or the role of a “talking head” to “expose the American military,” and here the Crimean collaborators could indeed intercede for a new propaganda toy in such a rare role of a “hero who survived American dungeons.”
In any case, we note that the case with the real crew members of the “Marinera” raises far more questions than answers, and our Association will continue to monitor this situation.
