Shadow Fleets, Designer Bags and IRBM's: Exposing Russia’s Brazen Sanctions Evasion Tactics

Missile tech smuggled in, luxury goods flow freely, and crypto breaks rules—see how notorious war criminal Vladimir Putin outfoxes sanctions.

Sanctions against Russia are once again making headlines in Western media. After another incident in the Baltic Sea involving a ship that is part of the so-called Shadow Fleet, the European Union is once again declaring that it will address the matter. Let’s hope that pressure from an incensed Finland and Estonia will make these measures effective, because, as we have recently learned from Financial Times reports, efforts to, for example, stop Russia from producing new types of weapons through sanctions have been pathetically ineffective. Traditionally, the thread of German technology is present in all this. We have also learned about one of the mechanisms by which Russia circumvents sanctions.