Sanctions don’t work: how Roman Spiridonov continues shipping Russian oil from Ust-Luga to global markets through Petroruss, offshore structures, and intermediaries

03 квітня 2026 р., 08:39

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Supplies of Russian oil from the Ust-Luga port after 2022 did not stop — they came under the control of a closed network of traders, offshore companies, and related entities. The central figure in this system is Roman Spiridonov — the owner of the Dubai trader Petroruss DMCC.

Spiridonov is linked to a large St. Petersburg group of businessmen, previously led by the influential entrepreneur Ilya Traber («Antikvar»). Spiridonov himself holds Greek citizenship, and his son, born in 2003, received documents in French Nice.

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The company Petroruss DMCC is registered in Dubai and is engaged in the supply of petroleum products and the chartering of sea vessels. Its suppliers are sanctioned Russian companies — «Gazprom Neft», «Gazprom Export», «Surgutneftegaz», «Tatneft».

One of the key loading points is the Ust-Luga port near St. Petersburg. It is from there that Petroruss picks up significant volumes of raw materials, after which the company’s tankers head mainly to India, Brazil, and Egypt.

Sanctions don’t work: how Roman Spiridonov continues shipping Russian oil from Ust-Luga to global markets through Petroruss, offshore structures, and intermediaries

In fact, after the start of the full-scale war, Roman Spiridonov became one of the key partners of Russian oil producing companies in schemes to bypass sanctions.

This system also involves Belarusian structures. In particular, according to sources, in 2023, when purchasing air tickets for Spiridonov from St. Petersburg to Moscow, the corporate email of the Belarusian company SLLC «KhimTekhEngineering» was used — a trader dealing in LPG and chemical products.

This company is part of Spiridonov’s business circle. Its corporate email is regularly used by Alexander Doroshenko — the general director of the St. Petersburg company «Kontur-S», which also belongs to his structures.

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Before the war, one of the largest suppliers to «KhimTekhEngineering» in foreign economic contracts was the company «RN Trans» — a structure of «Rosneft».

According to documents of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus for 2022, the founder of «KhimTekhEngineering» is the Cypriot offshore «Avestra Group Holding LTD». It is part of the large St. Petersburg transnational group «Avestra», which trades in petrochemical and gas chemical products and fertilizers.

The geography of «Avestra»’s activities covers China, India, Brazil, Turkey, European countries, the post-Soviet space, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Both the offshore and the group itself are registered to St. Petersburg resident Igor Berezkin.

Berezkin is another participant in the St. Petersburg trading network. In the early 2000s, he received about $1 million from businessman Nosirev as a targeted loan for the development of «Avestra» abroad, after which the debt notes ended up with Roman Spiridonov.

Irina Zavarina works in «Avestra» itself, who at the same time manages the Dubai trader Petroruss DMCC. This is confirmed by materials from the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property in a corporate dispute over trademark rights.

Sanctions don’t work: how Roman Spiridonov continues shipping Russian oil from Ust-Luga to global markets through Petroruss, offshore structures, and intermediaries

Such a large segment of international oil trade in the Russian Federation is not entrusted to random people. It is enough to recall the Coral Energy / 2Rivers Group network, controlled by persons from the entourage of Rosneft head Igor Sechin. In the case of Roman Spiridonov, it involves a native of structures related to «Gazprom» and St. Petersburg authority Ilya Traber.

Spiridonov himself is from Orenburg; in the 90s, he repeatedly changed his place of residence. He entered the international oil business together with Dmitriy Skigin (co-founder of the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal), Alexander Dyukov (now head of «Gazprom Neft»), Roman Belousov (beneficiary of LLC «Paid Road»), Vadim Gurinov (former head of «Sibur-Russian Tires»), and others.

In the early 90s, a small company in Monaco was acquired for these operations and renamed Sotrama. For some time, it was headed by Skigin Sr. The company acted as the founder of a number of structures in Liechtenstein, including Petroruss, and officially engaged in sea transportation.

Unofficially, according to former Monaco intelligence advisor Robert Eringer, Sotrama was used for money laundering of Russian origin. It was through it, according to his data, that the connection between the international network of companies and the Tambov group from St. Petersburg was carried out.

Eringer is a controversial figure but with access to closed information. A former FBI employee, he worked for several years as an intelligence advisor to Prince Albert II of Monaco, after which he conflicted with him and published a number of sensitive materials.

In his publications, he described a sprawling scheme for laundering money of Russian oligarchs, citing materials from Monaco’s criminal investigations. In particular, it was noted that a significant portion of the money was laundered through the real estate market of Western Europe with the participation of a network of companies, including Sotrama (Monaco) and structures in Liechtenstein — Oil Terminal, Horizon International Trading, and Petroruss, Inc.

Sanctions don’t work: how Roman Spiridonov continues shipping Russian oil from Ust-Luga to global markets through Petroruss, offshore structures, and intermediaries

The business partners of Sotrama head Dmitry Skigin (died in 2003) at the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal were Ilya Traber («Antikvar») and Sergei Vasilyev. Recently, the court nationalized the PNT, effectively ignoring the previous ties of the Skigin family with Russian «elites». Before that, loud conflicts over the redistribution of assets raged around the terminal, in which Roman Spiridonov also figured. This is no coincidence: as early as 2015, he became a minority shareholder of the port and was part of the tight circle of St. Petersburg businessmen.

After the chaotic 90s, this group reunited in 2003 in «Sibur», which was then controlled by «Gazprom». At the beginning of the year, the company was headed by Alexander Dyukov, previously linked to the businesses of Skigin and Traber. Vadim Gurinov and Roman Belousov also joined the structure; the latter received the position of first vice president of «Sibur-Europe Ltd» in Switzerland.

According to sources, Roman Spiridonov also worked at the «Sibur-Europe Ltd» representative office. In 2003, his income was 1.6 million rubles — about 130 thousand rubles per month, which indicates a high level of his position.

The Petroruss network has several legal shells in different jurisdictions. The first company — PETRORUSS INCORPORATED — was registered in 1996 in Liechtenstein. In 2001, a similar structure appeared in Panama, and later the key one became Petroruss DMCC in the UAE, which, according to available data, is managed by Irina Zavarina.

The Liechtenstein Petroruss was liquidated in September 2019, and it was a local lawyer, Marcus Hasler, who handled the «cleanup».

Hasler has a characteristic background: even before the collapse of the USSR, he was involved in the distribution of communist literature in the West, and later helped influential persons obtain informal benefits — from vacations at elite resorts to purchasing real estate in the Caribbean.

In 2017–2018, he, together with Graham Smith, appeared as the director of the Panamanian offshore Magalo Investments. Through a chain of companies, this structure owned a stake in LLC «St. Petersburg Paid Road», which promoted a concession project for paid crossings in St. Petersburg worth 8 billion rubles. The project was never implemented, and the company was liquidated in June last year.

Another structure — Horizon International Trading in Liechtenstein — was also liquidated with Hasler’s participation. Previously, 34% of the shares of the company «Soyvex», founded by Skigin Sr., were registered to it, where Alexander Dyukov worked as deputy general director for some time.

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In 2005, suppliers of oil for Horizon were LUKOIL, «Tatneft», TNK, and «Sibneft» (later «Gazprom Neft»). In 2019, a new Horizon International Trading was created — again in Liechtenstein (Ruggell), indicating the relaunch of the same scheme under a new legal form.

During the registration of the new Horizon International Trading, Markus Hasler reappeared — in 2019–2020, he was on the company’s board of directors.

Currently, Pavel Reimann is part of the management, and until 2024, Artem Tsobanyan was also there — a person with that name previously headed one of the divisions in the Austrian Gazprom Neft Trading GmbH.

Sanctions don’t work: how Roman Spiridonov continues shipping Russian oil from Ust-Luga to global markets through Petroruss, offshore structures, and intermediaries

In recent years, one of the key suppliers for the company was LLC «Gazprom Nefttekhim Salavat». In 2025, it was exposed for supplying fertilizers to Dubai at prices below market rates, and in 2023, among the counterparties were «Gazpromneft-ONPZ» and JSC «Gazprom Neft».

In fact, this indicates the continuity of the operation of the same trading infrastructure — the schemes did not disappear but were simply relaunched through new legal shells.