The Owner Of The Tanker Marinera Seized By The Americans Was A Businessman From Occupied Crimea
- 8.01.2026, 13:13
His company was registered in Ryazan only six months ago.
The oil tanker Marinera (formerly known as Bella 1) seized by the U.S. Armed Forces Europe Command belongs to the Russian company Burevestmarine. Its director and sole owner is an entrepreneur from annexed Crimea Ilya Bugai, according to the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS) and the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, as seen by Nova Gazeta Europe.
His company was registered in Ryazan only six months ago. However, it seems that it did conduct maritime transportation activities. On job search websites, one can find several published 2025 job postings of the company related to shipping.
Since 2018, Bugai has also served as CEO at Rusneftekhimtorg, a company that trades in petroleum products. In 2020, the company earned 4 billion rubles, then the revenue decreased strongly, and in 2024 (the latest available data) the company made losses.
According to information from his social networks, Bugai graduated from the Crimean Federal University in 2008 and now lives in Moscow.
The seizure of the Marinera
On January 7, the U.S. Armed Forces Europe Command announced the seizure of an oil tanker in the North Atlantic Ocean, near the coast of Iceland. The chase for the vessel began back in December 2025, when the tanker was trying to approach the coast of Venezuela. Then the ship was flying the flag of Guyana (in the IMO database it is marked as "false") and was named Bella 1.
A few days later, already in the process of the chase, the ship changed its flag to Russian, and the name - to Marinera. According to Reuters, the tanker was accompanied by a Russian military submarine at the time of the seizure.
Russia tried to protect Marinera through diplomatic channels, but it was not successful.
The White House said that Marinera is part of Venezuela's "shadow fleet" and is engaged in oil transportation to circumvent U.S. sanctions. The vessel was arrested on a warrant issued by a U.S. court. The crew of the Marinera, according to White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt, will be brought to the US "if necessary" for trial.
Precedent in international law
The fact that the U.S. military and officials refer to the ship as the Bella 1 in official statements without using its new name appears to be because U.S. authorities do not recognize the re-registration of the ship in Russian jurisdiction, carried out after the chase began. The fact that the US considers the Marinera to be a vessel without nationality was stated by White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt.
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea prohibits changing a vessel's flag during a voyage, but stipulates that such a right is preserved if the vessel does change ownership or registration. The fact that the vessel appeared in the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and changed its flag to the Russian flag (not marked as false) in the database of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) may be in favor of the fact of change of registration.
The Convention also stipulates the right of "hot pursuit", according to which warships can start pursuing the violating vessel in their territorial waters and continue it in neutral waters. However, based on known evidence, the Marinera's pursuit began in neutral waters.
The Conversation notes that the legality of a flag change during a pursuit that began in neutral waters is a new precedent in international maritime law.
"Shadow Fleet"
Bella 1 has been under U.S. sanctions since June 2024 for transporting cargo for the Lebanese Islamist group Hezbollah. At the time of its inclusion in the sanctions list, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Bella 1 belonged to the Panamanian company Louis Marine Shipholding Enterprises S.A. This company, in turn, had previously fallen under U.S. sanctions for cooperation with the Quds Force, the paramilitary wing of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
According to the oil tanker tracking service TankerTrackers, the vessel has a long history of transporting Iranian oil. Over the past four years, it has transported at least 7.3 million barrels of Iranian and 3.7 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to China.
After the Marinera, it became known about the seizure by the U.S. military of another oil tanker linked to Russia. On January 7, the Southern Command of the U.S. Armed Forces announced the seizure of the Sophia in international waters in the Caribbean Sea. Apparently, the message of the US Armed Forces refers to the tanker M Sophia, which fell under US sanctions in October 2025 for participation in the operations of the Russian "shadow fleet". According to the US Treasury Department statement, the owner of the M Sophia is a Hong Kong-based company called Sunne Co Limited. This company, owned by Chinese national Sun Fuhai, was liquidated in July 2025, Novaya Gazeta Europe verified by consulting the Hong Kong registry of legal entities. According to the IMO database, M Sophia has been owned since 2021 by Maisie Ltd, a Marshall Islands-registered company with a correspondence address in China.
TankerTrackers writes that M Sophia transported 1.8 million barrels of Venezuelan oil and was able to escape the U.S. naval blockade of Venezuela by leaving the country's shores immediately after the American takeover of Nicolas Maduro.