In the beginning of August some European media, including “Britpanorama”, “Lamia Report” and “Attuale”, published the investigations, devoted to illegal activities of crewing agencies at the Russia-occupied Crimea.
Investigations proved that significant shares of “Russian sailors” in the aggressor’s tanker fleet and other Russia-controlled vessels, committing illegal maritime activities, are residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine, primarily from the Crimean peninsula, recruited and placed to vessels by crewing agencies, that work under Russian control at the Russia-occupied Crimea.
Investigations reminded that sanctions from the EU, the USA and other countries prohibit commercial activities in many sectors of the economy of the occupied Crimea, and in the case of crewing activities, this primarily concerns the prohibition of financial transactions that ensure its existence.
It is easy to guess that shipowners of civilized countries who are not involved in other maritime sanctions packages are not eager to pay “white” money to Crimean crewing, while the circulation of money between shipowners subordinate to the Kremlin and employment offices on the occupied peninsula is constantly growing, and here the Crimean crewing agencies themselves become violators of the sanctions packages imposed on specific shipowners.
Therefore, the Crimean crewing agencies exist either at the expense of the seafarers, which is a known and fundamental violation of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, or they exist at the expense of the Russian maritime business, primarily the “shadow” tanker fleet.
Such crewing agencies take advantage of the fact that the Russian maritime trade unions, which have been illegally operating in the Crimea since 2014, will not file complaints with the ILO about the violation of this 2006 Convention by the Crimea crewing agencies, and the Crimean seafarers themselves, under the conditions of occupation, will clearly not risk communicating with international institutions on their own.
However, investigation stresses, that even besides the sanctions issues, it should be remembered that all maritime countries of the world do not recognize the attempted annexation of Crimea by Russia, and therefore all documents issued on the occupied peninsula to crew members are illegal and invalid: fake “passports”, “certificates” of qualification, of education or training, etc.
Therefore, Crimean sailors on board with the corresponding “Russian maritime papers” are actually uncertified, and therefore vessels with such crew members on board automatically violate key maritime safety conventions, such as SOLAS and STCW. Investigations confirmed that the challenges of Russian invasion for maritime security were also established by IMO resolution A.1183 (33) of 2023.
Investigation stressed that Crimean seafarers’ contracts are covered by collective agreements or P&I insurance at best formally, and in the event of force majeure, such as injury, death, arbitrariness on board or commercial problems of the shipowner, such a seafarer or his family can only count on themselves, according to the known Kremlin’s slogan “there is no money, but you hold on”, which is a gross violation of the 2006 Convention.
Investigations stressed that in general, for the Crimea, which is under Russian occupation, a common specific feature is that the “skeleton” of the local crewing agencies was formed before the occupation, and then the corresponding “commercial paths” for many became very different. The main concentration of relevant companies is traditionally observed in Kerch and Sevastopol, where up to thirty relevant structures were investigated.
Mentioned investigation proved facts of activities of the Yalta crewing agency “Tenet Marine Company Ltd” (“Morskaya kompaniya “Tenet””), with Greek shipowners, same illegal activities of Sevastopol crewing agencies “Maritime Agency VV” (“Morskoye agenstvo VV”), “Transcontract Ship Management”, “Maritime Agency Titarenko” (“Morskoye agenstvo Titarenko”), “Sevastopol Maritime Club” (“Sevastopolsky morskoy klub”), “Dalmarin Personnel Agency” (“Kadrovoye agenstvo Dalmarin”), “Atlantic Crewing Company”, “Stellmar”, “Maritime Agency Tramontana” (“Morskoye agenstvo Tramontana”), “Sea Alliance”, with its current Mariupol clone, and “Seamen’s Training Centre” (STC or “Tsentr podhotovki moryakov”), connected with the Greek companies, owned by Panos Laskaridis.
Also the mentioned investigation proved facts of collaboration of Kerch crewing agencies with the Russian “shadow” tanker fleet, such as “Sydyma”, “Top Crew”, “Maritime Agency “Intermarine”” (“Morskoye agenstvo “Intermarine””), “Noss Krym”, “Transoptimal”, “Stella Maris”, “Lora and Company” (“Lora i Kompaniya”), that also cooperated illegally with the Baltic shipowners, and with the international fishery mafia.
At the same time the Crimean crewing agencies and the companies affiliated with them, the vessels and personnel associated with them contribute to the aggression of the Russian Federation and are still not under sanctions, investigations stressed. They added that the Crimean crewing agencies undoubtedly play a significant role in providing personnel for the “shadow” fleet, which is engaged in the transportation of Russian oil, and there are numerous facts of employment of ship crew members through them.
Investigations pointed that the Crimean crewing agencies is actually subordinate to the general maritime strategy of Russia, which is undoubtedly aimed at domination, the construction of naval logistics and the fight against sanctions at the expense of maritime transport. The Crimean crewing agencies are a kind of driver of the war, the functioning of the Russian tanker fleet, as well as the activities of the Russian occupation regime in Crimea. This is another challenge for the international community and, of course, a global threat, which must be localized, investigations added.
The research of published facts and data of those investigations, done by our exrerts, confirmed the connections of the beneficiaries and management of the Crimean crewing agencies with European shipowners, including Greek ones, inherited before 2014, still contribute to their interaction with other vessels, including tankers, as well as with the oil production industry of third countries, including the Gulf.
This provides the Russian Federation with enormous opportunities to influence any oil transportation “from within” for the benefit of its own beneficiaries, using Crimean seafarers on that vessels for illegal activities against maritime safety.
So our Association sent now the special urgent submission about above described issues to all the authorized UN bodies, to structures of Council of Europe, of European Union, BSEC, OSCE, ILO, FAO and IMO, to the ITF structures and Memorandums of Understanding of port control, also as to the sanctions units of U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and to the national maritime administrations of civilized states.
We informed also the international maritime business structures, such as P&I insurance clubs, classification societies, BIMCO, INTERTANKO and may others. Our submission demanded to establish sanctions against above named Crimean crewing agencies, and stressed that shipowners should stop employing Crimean sailors with “Russian documents”, in particular through the described crewing agencies.
As the Crimean crewing agencies, which provide the Kremlin with a measure of payment of “taxes” that go to finance the war, replenishing the Russian military budget, must be sanctioned, so any collaboration with Crimean crewing agencies is the illegal and nonconventional, and must me banned by all maritime administrations, our submission added.
As those crewing agencies participate in scams with “Russian maritime documents”, contribute to the militarization of Crimean sailors, so the need arise for a detailed study of the activities of such companies in the context of the expanding the sanctions policy against their key personnel, submission pointed also.
Also P&I insurance clubs, regional MoU and maritime registries must pay special attention to vessels that collaborate with Crimean crewing agencies, as to most risky category of vessels regarding MLC and STCW demands. Authorized maritime registries must not collaborate with Crimean crewing agencies and relevant training centers for their certification, our submission added.
Our submission stressed that also special attention must be paid to illegal activities of Russian classification societies such as “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping” and “Russian Classification Society”, former “Russian River Register”.
Since 2014, those Russian classification societies provided criminal “classification supervision” of merchant fleet vessels, port infrastructure, and property of the Ukraine’s “Chornomornaftogaz” state joint-stock company seized in the temporarily occupied Crimea, and they closely collaborate with the Crimean crewing agencies, our submission described on that point. Our activities on research the illegal activities of crewing agencies, that support Russian aggression, will be continued.
