A new wave of “tearful complaints” from aggressor-controlled sea fishermen is being observed on the occupied peninsula due to the Russian government’s repeated announcement of plans to ban commercial vessels over 40 years old from sailing starting in 2030.
This situation was first voiced by the fake “head of the Sevastopol and Crimean fishing association,” Valery Sivochub, who, back in 2023, was enthusiastically claiming that the “temporary inconveniences” caused by large-scale Russian aggression, in the form of “bans and restrictions” on commercial fishing in the Azov and Black Seas, were supposedly “temporary” and that “federal subsidies will save the industry.”
However, as became clear by 2025, these sums, purely symbolic on an industry-wide scale, given to “the right people,” will generate nothing but a behind-the-scenes struggle for their laundering.
As we previously reported, in 2025, Sevastopol fishermen will allegedly receive 157 million rubles in “state support,” while in 2024, 174 million of such funds were “developed.”
Crimean fishermen, meanwhile, will receive no more than 60 million, and among their Sevastopol “colleagues,” the money will allegedly only reach seven entities this year.
Meanwhile, Sivochub claims that “an average 40-year-old trawler now costs approximately 80 million rubles,” and “the new vessel that the ‘United Shipbuilding Corporation’ is offering us today costs at least 2.5 billion,” noting that “there’s no talk of a breakeven.”
Therefore, a ban on dilapidated vessels “will ruin the fishing industry in Sevastopol, Crimea, and the entire Black Sea coast.” And it’s not particularly hidden that the foundation of the new Kremlin plan is “stimulating shipbuilding,” specifically for Russian monopolies: fishing vessels are not built at all on the occupied peninsula.
At the same time, it is acknowledged that “shipbuilders are currently focusing on the capabilities of their main customers—the Ministry of Defense and Gazprom—that is, those entities where billions of “nobody’s” money are spent on ship purchases, and it is stated that “the fishing industry, especially the anchovy and sprat industry, cannot cope with such price levels.”
Sivochub stated that “there are currently about 20 trawlers and seiners afloat in Sevastopol and Crimea. They catch the cheapest fish – sprat, anchovy, and horse mackerel. Almost all of these vessels are over 40 years old today, and by 2030, they will all be older.”
As for the “small-sized fleet,” that is, vessels up to 16 meters long that “catch horse mackerel, red mullet, bluefish, and turbot with seine nets,” according to Sivochub, “there are about 40 of these in Sevastopol, and another 50 in Crimea,” 80% of which are also “veterans.”
The most tragicomic thing is that Sivochub appeals to the “safety” of the aging Crimean vessels, supposedly guaranteed by such “authoritative bodies” as Russian “classification societies,” the infamous “Russian Maritime Register of Shipping” and the “Russian Classification Society.”
According to the “certificates” issued by these bodies, supposedly “each vessel undergoes annual inspections and a dock survey twice every five years.” This, of course, only happens on paper, and therefore constitutes an “acceptable expense” for fishermen.
Naturally, Russian authorities are least concerned about shipping safety and are only seeking to load monopolistic shipbuilders with orders. However, it’s clear that fishermen from the occupied peninsula will not be making these purchases. However, this is the last thing the Kremlin worries about.
