Trace of Odesa MP found in Russia's shadow fleet

The shadowy fleet that transports Russian oil involves companies associated with the family of former Odesa City Council member Viktor Baransky.

This information was found by the Center for Public Investigations in an investigation by the Russian opposition publication Vörstka.

Viktor Baransky was elected from the Opposition Platform - For Life party. He continued to be a deputy even when his companies started exporting Russian oil. The Odesa resident was deprived of his Ukrainian citizenship only in February 2023.

The key company in Baransky 's complex conglomerate is Zolos, registered in Moldova. The conglomerate includes both Ukrainian crewing companies Eurobalk and Novomar and Russian Aquamarine Ship Management, Novograin and Novomar Group Crewing.

Zolos tankers are owned by companies from the Marshall Islands. This is an offshore jurisdiction that does not disclose the beneficiaries of legal entities, but this company, like more than a hundred others involved in the transportation of oil from sanctioned jurisdictions, is connected to Baransky.

At least seven companies linked to Baransky are still operating in Russia, according to investigators. The co-owner of the bank that lent money to the Baransky-related company was Sergey Lobanov, a partner of Ilan Shor, a pro-Russian Moldovan oligarch who fled the country for Moscow.

As a reminder, in April 2024, a deputy of the Odesa City Council, Viktor Baransky, was deprived of his powers because he lost his Ukrainian citizenship.

Earlier, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine received permission from the High Anti-Corruption Court to conduct a pre-trial investigation in absentia against fugitive Odesa businessman Viktor Baransky. In particular, the court upheld the prosecutor's appeal and granted permission for a special pre-trial investigation into the seizure of 32 vessels of the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company.

The NABU and the SAPO served suspicion notices to two former deputies of the Odesa Regional Council and four others of seizing 32 vessels of the Danube Shipping Company for more than UAH 80 million. According to the investigation, the deputies organized a scheme to seize the vessels of the Ukrainian Shipping Company in August 2017. The vessels were transferred for charter to a controlled company, which then transported them to Turkey. There, they dismantled the lighters and built larger barges from them, after which the organizers towed them to Ukraine for their own commercial purposes.

Кирило Бойко