CNN: Russian oil tankers are increasingly disappearing from surveillance systems — so they bypass sanctions

Russian tankers carrying crude oil and petroleum products are increasingly disappearing from tracking systems.

They turned off for hours at a time to evade sanctions. Dark activity among Russian-affiliated crude oil tankers is up by 600% compared with before the war began, predictive intelligence company Windward, told CNN.

So-called dark activity, where shipsʼ transponders are turned off for hours at a time, has in the past been viewed by US officials as a deceptive shipping practice that is often used to evade sanctions.

"Weʼre seeing a spike in Russian tankers turning offs transmissions deliberately to circumvent sanctions," Windward CEO Ami Daniel said in an interview. "The Russian fleet is starting to hide its whereabouts and its exports."

He noted that this is not just about crude oil. Similar trends are observed with other petroleum products.