Russian oil tankers are increasingly going dark in order to evade US-led sanctions. Dark activity refers to when ships' transponders and automatic identification systems (AIS) are shut off for long periods of time. Oil cargo is switching hands from Russian sources to companies, countries silently in order to avoid the global stigma of being associated with Russia as it continues to attack Ukraine from all sides.

Dark activity in Russian-affiliated crude oil tankers is up 7-fold compared to pre-war times, according to predictive intelligence company Windward, reported CNN.

"We're seeing a spike in Russian tankers turning off transmissions deliberately to circumvent sanctions. The Russian fleet is starting to hide its whereabouts and its exports," Windward CEO Ami Daniel said in an interview with CNN.

Read Also | India to get Russian crude oil at $35 per barrel discount: Report

While international regulations ask cargo vessels and ships to keep their transponders on at all times, vessels sometimes shut the systems down to not attract pirates and during certain other conditions.

"These vessels want to disappear from radar. From a compliance perspective, it's a red flag," Daniel said.

While the US and Canada have sanctioned Russian energy products, other countries continue to import Russian crude and natural gas to meet their energy requirements.

Many European countries continue to import significant amounts of Russian energy while countries like India have also found Russian crude, which is being offered at deep discounts, to be the solution against excessive energy spending in the volatile crude oil market.

"The ships are going dark because they are afraid if they take on Russian business, they will be blacklisted for a period of time and unable to get future business," said Andy Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates, to CNN.

Most of the dark activity is happening when Russia is exporting its oil to China and India, two of the biggest importers and consumers of oil. India has already bought 13 million barrels of Urals grade oil since February with tenders for another 3 million barrels, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That figure is higher than the entire volume of imported Russian oil that India received in 2021.

While the US criticised India’s decision of buying Russian oil, a statement from which it backtracked later, India’s position as an ally and partner of both the West and Russia has become complicated.

Read Also | Walking a tightrope: India’s decision to buy Russian crude has a rational explanation

For China, which already has had tense relations with the US and other western powers over the last two decades, the opportunity to entrench itself further with Russia and buy cheaper oil comes with very little, if any, downsides.

Punitive economic sanctions on Russia, including kicking several Russian banks out of the SWIFT payments system, denial of access to international currency markets, and others, are supposed to halt Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. However, the measures have so far yielded very little results despite the stress that the Russian economy has come under as a result.

(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)