The “dark fleet” of ships carrying Russian cargo may be spreading. The Wall Street Journal reports that a Russian merchant ship whose owner allegedly carried weapons for the Kremlin, switched off his transponder last month before secretly docking at South Africa’s largest naval base.
The ship, named Lady R, owned by Russian shipping company MG-FLOT, delivered and loaded unidentified shipments.
The visit has strained relations between Washington and Pretoria. It also shows the difficulty for the US and its allies in enforcing sanctions against Moscow.
The Lady R employed traditional tactics, such as turning off transponders that ships used to evade pursuit. According to witnesses and photos, a mobile crane, under the supervision of armed guards, moved boxes to and from the 122-meter-long ship for two nights while Simon’s Town, where the base is located, was plunged into darkness by nationwide power outages.
