Sovcomflot, the largest shipping company in Russia, reacted to sanctions imposed on its vessels by the United States in January 2025.
At that time, more than 180 tankers were sanctioned by the United States, which attributed them to Russia’s “shadow fleet”. The country circumvented international sanctions with this fleet.
“Sovcomflot has always complied with and continues to comply with all applicable international and national laws and regulations. The company’s ships do not belong to the “shadow fleet”… Such a policy of sanctions is increasingly destroying the global system of commercial shipping, which has been developed and operated for decades… The introduction of new sanctions on Sovcomfleet vessels creates additional operational difficulties for their operation,” the group said in a statement.
82.8% of Sovcomflot shares are owned by the Russian government, and 17.2% are owned by private investors. Following the introduction of US sanctions on 10 January, the price of Sovcomflot shares fell by about 4%.
By January 2024, Sovcomflot had already been under US and European Union sanctions. On March 15, 2022, the shipping company was added to the EU sanctions list, being banned from entering the ports of the EU. On February 23, 2024, Sovcomflot was included on the US blocking list of sanctions.
