Maritime authorities are reporting a growing network of Russian "shadow" ships sailing without a valid national flag.
Some of these ships are even suspected of undersea sabotage, illicit drone launches or "spoofing" their location data.
That is a troubling trend, says senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward AI, Michelle Wiese Bockmann, who adds that if there is an accident, "good luck with trying to find somebody responsible to pick up any cost".
Driven by record sanctions on Russian energy and tighter enforcement, the number of falsely flagged ships globally has more than doubled this year to over 450, most of them tankers, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) database.
Sea-born energy exports continue to generate billions for Russia, as the Kremlin wages war in Ukraine.
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