Russian oil tankers go dark, evading name-and-shame Twitter bot

Enlarge / Activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace demonstrate in the Baltic Sea in front of a ship carrying Russian oil on March 23, 2022. (credit: Frank Molter/picture alliance)

First there was the Russian oligarch jet tracker; then there was the Russian oligarch yacht tracker; now there's the Russian oil tanker tracker.

The new tool comes from data scientists at Greenpeace UK, who created an automated bot that draws from public data to tweet about the movements of oil and gas tankers leaving Russian ports. The goal, Greenpeace says, is to cut off one of Russia's main revenue sources that's helping fuel President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

Russia draws considerable revenue from oil and gas-about 40 percent of its federal budget relies on fossil fuel royalties-which means that tankers fulfilling contracts are essentially contributing to Russia's war machine. By tweeting the origin, identity, and destination of tankers that have docked at Russian ports, Greenpeace is hoping to shame companies and countries into shunning oil and gas purchases from the country.

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