Russia and Azerbaijan will jointly build “river-sea” class oil tankers. These innovative vessels will bolster Russia’s tanker fleet, enabling the country to circumvent sanctions. The work will be carried out by Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and the Baku Shipyard.

What’s particularly interesting is that the number of tankers in Russia’s fleet is growing daily, while the U.S. Treasury Department struggles to “keep up” with adding the names of new tankers to the sanctions list. As of now, the fleet used for transporting Russian crude oil exceeds the fleet that has been sanctioned.