Finland

Massive ‘Shadow Tanker’ Fleet Helps Rogue Nations Evade U.S. Sanctions

The Trump administration’s “blockade” of illegal Venezuelan oil shipments is among the few serious efforts at controlling the “shadow fleet” or “dark fleet” – the vast armada of tankers flying false flags, submitting false paperwork, shutting down their identification equipment, and helping rogue nations like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela evade U.S. sanctions against their oil industries.

AHTOPOL, BULGARIA - DECEMBER 8: The Kairos oil tanker, a Gambian-flagged vessel believed t

Russia Plans U.S.-Style Foreign Aid Program to Spread Influence

Yevgeny Primakov, head of Russia’s “cultural diplomacy” agency Rossotrudnichestvo, said on Tuesday that his government plans to launch a foreign aid and development program modeled on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) – the agency the Trump administration folded into the State Department due to its profligate spending.

Evgeny Primakov, Head, Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs,