Shaheen, Risch Shadow Fleet Bill Passes Committee

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Jim Risch (R-ID), Ranking Member and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the statement below on the passage of their SHADOW Fleet Sanctions Act in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee business meeting.

"Today, our committee took action to crack down on illicit shadow fleet ships that Vladimir Putin uses to fund his brutal war against Ukraine. These ships and the oil sales they facilitate directly threaten American and European security and embolden Russia, China, Venezuela and Iran.

"We in the U.S. Senate need to do all we can to bring an end to this conflict, including driving Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, hamstringing the Russian economy and preventing further destruction in Ukraine. We are grateful for the support of our colleagues in passing this legislation and will continue to look for more ways to support Administration efforts to bring a lasting peace to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. We look forward to working with Leaders Thune and Schumer to see this important bill pass the Senate."

Background: This bill will vastly expand U.S. sanctions authorities to target a collection of older, reflagged oil tankers that Russia uses to circumvent existing U.S. sanctions on Russian oil and energy revenues. This collection of oil tankers is known as the Russian shadow fleet. The SHADOW Fleet Act builds upon recent U.S. government action to discourage countries from purchasing Russian oil, which fuels the Russian economy and Putin's war.

The bill also targets the key Russian energy sector projects directly, imposing sanctions on the Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2 projects, as well as expanding sanctions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines to align with corresponding EU sanctions. Combined with other legislative efforts, including the bipartisan STOP China and Russia Act, bipartisan legislation to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism and the bipartisan Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Implementation Act, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has voted in favor of a complement of efforts that will devastate Russia's war machine once enacted.

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