(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Bellingcat and Scripps News: Russia’s Ghost Ships and the Evolution of a Grain Smuggling Operation [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-27 I had not seen this story reported elsewhere, but it is a critical element in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It’s definitely worth a look. It’s too easy to focus on advances on the battlefield while missing the rest of the picture. They do it by loading ships with grain in occupied ports, ships that have turned off their satellite tracking beacons. The ships rendezvous with other ships elsewhere, and do ship-to-ship transfers of grain to make it even harder to trace the shipments. From there the grain moves through the Bosphorus Strait to customers like Syria, Iran, and others. Farmers in occupied Ukraine and Crimea have little choice but to cooperate and accept whatever pittance the occupiers are willing to pay them. Meanwhile Russia has ended a deal to allow Ukraine to export grain from the ports it holds and has been targeting them, as well as disrupting efforts by farmers in Ukraine to grow and harvest their grain. Bellingcat and Scripps report the Russian effort is becoming more brazen. They detail the extensive ship maneuvers to carry this out, with many ship-to-ship transfers being centered in the Kerch Strait. Despite the Russians playing games with ship tracking beacons, the investigators have been able to use satellite photos, Lloyds of London shipping data, and visual ship tracking as they traverse the Bosphorus Strait to unravel the operations and the companies carrying them out. They report the grain (and the profits) are not going to the Russian people, but instead where they will advance Putin’s agenda. The money helps finance the war and buy weapons while evading sanctions. Read the whole thing — it’s a big story. ...Investigations in 2022 by the likes of the Financial Times, Bloomberg, CNN, Reuters, the BBC, the Wall Street Journal and Associated Press have all reported on grain being exported from sanctioned Crimea. Russia has previously denied exporting grain from occupied Ukraine and the Russian government did not respond to emailed request for comment regarding this article. But some in occupied Ukraine appear to have spoken openly about the practice. In June 2022, the head of Russian Crimea was reported to have stated that grain from occupied Kherson and Zaporizhya was being transported to and exported via Sevastopol. A March 2023 news report from a Sevastopol television station, meanwhile, detailed how grain grown in the occupied Melitopol region was being exported from Sevastopol. However, this is just a fraction of the full story. Such actions are in contravention of United States, European Union and United Kingdomsanctions that have targeted exports from Crimea and Sevastopol. The UK has even specifically targeted grain stolen from eastern Ukraine. Here is the cooperative report as aired on Scripps News. It shows how the latest investigation here has unraveled the efforts Russia is making to conceal this illicit trade, identifying ships, ports, companies, and the countries involved in this scheme. Bellingcat has a number of fascinating investigations at its website. You can support their efforts here. So does Scripps News. (More about Scripps here.) They are now available in my locale through over-the-air digital broadcasts — you can watch on line or use the tool at this link to find a station in your area that carries them. I recommend adding both of them to your news sources if you haven’t already bookmarked them. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/27/2189892/-Bellingcat-and-Scripps-News-Russia-s-Ghost-Ships-and-the-Evolution-of-a-Grain-Smuggling-Operation Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/