Russia’s Ghost Ships and the Evolution of a Grain Smuggling Operation - bellingcat

• UK Limited Partnerships acted as intermediaries for over 17,000 imports into Russia between 24 February 2022 and 31 March 2023.


• None of these Partnerships have controlling partners or persons of significant control in the UK.

Growing intercontinental trade required new modes of specialized shipping. Bulk carriers with large compartments and massive watertight hatches were designed to transport coal, grain, ores, cement, and fertilizer, and they could be rapidly loaded and unloaded. But the greatest shipping innovation came in 1957, when a North Carolina trucker Malcolm

Two types of freight appear to have filled those first containers crossing the Atlantic: whiskey on the westbound run, military goods on the voyage to Europe. Liquor exporters had long complained of huge losses to theft on the docks, and convincing them to use containers was not a hard sell.

there also were tales of confrontations between railroad men and boats of Cuban gunrunners picking up caches of arms, and swarthy revolutionary types bound for insurgency operations on the island.