“The State Fisheries Agency and Its Russian Friends” — Boris Babin, Legal Advisor at BARRISTERS, LLC

The tragic incident involving the fishing vessel "Ivan Golubets" (IMO 8859782) off the coast of Mauritania once again forces us to revisit the issues of corruption, incompetence, and outright lobbying for hostile interests within the State Agency for Fisheries.

Let me remind you that in recent years, Ukrainian vessels—which were formally state-owned and engaged in oceanic fishing under bilateral and global international agreements in the Antarctic and the Eastern Atlantic— have changed their flags and are effectively undergoing a slow process of divestiture in favor of foreign beneficiaries. This process of dismantling Ukraine’s oceanic fishing industry has accelerated since 2014; For example, these vessels are often managed from occupied Crimea, and their crew members—and even their captains—are not Ukrainians (including Crimean sailors) but citizens of the aggressor state. Among other things, two years ago, this very vessel, the “Ivan Golubets,” changed its flag to that of Belize, and a year ago, to that of Georgia.

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This, in particular, allowed the shipowner to have the vessel undergo technical inspections by the notorious Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (the vessel’s registration number with the Russians is 903774), which for years has been teetering on the brink of significant sanctions in Ukraine and, since 2014, has been unable to certify vessels flying the Ukrainian flag. Therefore, Ukrainian officials are more than happy—for a small bonus—to allow Ukrainian vessels to deregister from the Ukrainian registry—just so as not to jeopardize their own commercial and friendly relations with the Russian registry.

We are now seeing the tragic results of such bogus technical certifications—because the competence of the Russian classification society (like everything else Russian) is very specific and depends, of course, not on the technical condition of the vessel, but on the number and color of the papers in the envelope and on phone calls from Moscow. I am certain that the classification documents from this organization, which were destroyed along with the ship’s quarters, stated that everything was in order on board, including fire safety measures. Of course, it would be very good if domestic law enforcement agencies were to determine exactly who is to blame for the probable death of a crew member of the “Ivan Golubets” in the fire, given the obvious malfunctions and the inability to contain the fire using standard equipment.

I would also like to add that the owner of this vessel, which underwent a technical inspection by the Russians, is the Ukrainian state-owned enterprise “Service,” registered at 82A Turgenevska Street in Kyiv. At least ten enterprises, institutions, and organizations under the jurisdiction of the State Fisheries Agency are registered at this address, including both Crimean fishing ports. Of course, in an ideal world, our intelligence services would take an interest in such “fraternal ties” between the State Fisheries Agency and the Russian Ministry of Maritime and Inland Fisheries, but in reality—as is well known—they tolerate outright betrayal of national interests through the signing of annual protocols between the State Fisheries Agency and the Russians regarding fishing in the Azov Sea. After all, as we know, big money (even very big money, in the case of the RMRF) means a lot of silence.