Russia’s Arctic shipping routes—especially the Northern Sea Route (NSR)—are increasingly being described as a corridor for the global “shadow fleet” of tankers moving crude oil and LNG under sanctions pressure. The trend is fueling concerns over maritime safety, environmental risk, and geopolitical stability in one of the world’s most fragile regions.
In 2025, nearly one in three vessels using the route was reportedly associated with the shadow fleet. Monitoring over the past year identified around 100 sanctioned vessels—mainly oil and gas tankers—transiting the NSR, a sharp jump from just 13 such vessels recorded in 2024.
For years, Russia promoted the NSR as a legitimate, shorter trade corridor connecting Asia and Europe. By 2025, however, analysts say the route has increasingly functioned as a high-latitude maritime channel used by sanctioned ships, particularly in the oil and LNG sectors.
Many of these vessels are described as older tankers, sometimes lacking suitable ice-class capability or robust insurance, operating under opaque flags, and at times switching off AIS transponders, making movements harder to track in remote waters. Reports also note that Russian authorities have reduced the publication of detailed traffic data along the route.
Overall, researchers identified 38 sanctioned oil tankers and 13 LNG carriers using the Arctic shortcut. Some sanctioned oil tankers were also reported to have transited the route without formal authorization from the NSR’s route administrator.
The traffic profile is increasingly dominated by Russian and Chinese-linked vessels, with sanctioned oil and LNG tankers particularly prominent—highlighting how geopolitical isolation is reshaping Arctic maritime flows.
The picture is further complicated by emerging links between the Arctic shadow fleet and other global sanction-evasion networks. For example, the tanker Hyperion, previously observed on the NSR, later reportedly sailed to Venezuela carrying Russian naphtha—illustrating how sanctioned Arctic tankers may operate as part of a wider international web used to bypass restrictions.
