On March 18, “Cyber Sprotyv” published correspondence from the aggressor’s sanctioned deputy head of the federal agency of sea and river transport Zakhary Dzhioev, mainly devoted to the criminal looting of grain from occupied Berdyansk.
However, of particular interest is Dzhioev’s letter dated May 7 last year, which describes the aggressor’s attempt to purchase the ferry “Paralos”, which was at that time under the flag of Greece, for the illegal Kerch crossing.
At the same time, the aggressor’s state enterprise “Rosmorport”, subordinate to Dzhioev, was looking for a ferry and was going to pay for it, and permission for this scam was given by the deputy chairman of the aggressor’s government, Marat Khusnullin, and from a certain “working group for the implementation of a special infrastructure project”.
Dzhioev wrote that “the Russian maritime register of shipping carried out a preliminary assessment of the technical condition of the vessel”, that it was selected “on the recommendation of the FSB”, that “a supply agreement was concluded, funds were reserved, and the foreign economic payment was approved”.
It is interesting that Dzhioev stated that “in connection with the sanctions restrictions, the greatest difficulty was caused by the issues of organizing payment”, but that “a mutually acceptable solution has been found”. The seller of the ferry was stated to be a company from the United Arab Emirates, “White Lions Foodstuff Trading LLC”.
It is worth noting here that we have not identified this structure in open sources, and therefore either there is a special or accidental inaccuracy in Dzhioev’s letter, or this “seller” is obviously a fake structure and not listed in the Emirates’ registers.
This is not a rhetorical question, since the ferry “Paralos” number IMO 9813292 never reached Kerch, and now it operates in the Aegean Sea itself, on inter-island transportation, its owner is stated to be the company “Nea Tefkros II SC”, and the operator is “Aias-Iolcos Shipping Co”, and both of these Greek entities have the same address in Salamis, and, moreover, have been declared as the owners of the ferry since its construction in 2016.
Thus, Dzhioev’s letter proves an unsuccessful attempt to circumvent sanctions and acquire, with the criminal assistance of the Russian register, a Greek ferry, as well as a related financial scam, where there is a genuine or simulated “Emirati trace”.
