The German publication described the event as a demonstration of Berlin's “tougher stance” regarding Russia's violations of the rules.
Tavian, which flies the Cameroon flag, was grounded on the morning of January 10 due to suspicions of false registration and use of a false identification number (IMO).
The media writes that the tanker was going to pass through the Baltic Sea to Russian St. Petersburg, where large oil terminals are located, but after checking documents with identification data, German police refused entry into German territorial waters.
After this, Tavian turned north and, apparently, goes to the Norwegian Sea, from there to get to Murmansk, another Russian “oil” port.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung called the ship, built in 1998, a “zombie tanker”, as it has already changed 13 names. In particular, it was previously called Tia and Arcusat.
Journalists suggest that the IMO number of the tanker was falsified in May 2025 while mooring in Zhoushan, China. At that time the ship was still called Arcusat and flew the flag of Guyana.
According to the publication, German authorities noticed Tavian in December 2025, but then they did not stop it because it was in international waters, moving towards Turkey.
According to the VesselFinder service, the length of the “zombie tanker” is 244 meters and, as of January 16, it is located near the northern coast of Norway, between the Norwegian and Barents Seas.
Context
Russia uses the “shadow fleet” to circumvent international sanctions when trading its oil.
On January 13, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that sanctions pressure from Ukraine and international partners led to the stoppage of at least a fifth of the vessels of the “shadow tanker fleet” of the Russian Federation.
