The new security measures come into force in Russia in respect of the vessels arriving from foreign ports.
The articles published by the media may cause confusion as some refer to 'foreign vessels entering the Russian ports' whereas correct meaning is 'vessels calling from foreign ports'.
The Decree No.502 dated 21.07.2025 by the President of the Russian Federation [the Decree] on the features of vessels' calls at the seaports of the Russian Federation, with translation into English.
In accordance with the Decree, the Harbour Masters of all Russian ports must notify the Federal Security Services (FSB) about the vessels' calls in order to get the respective approval from FSB for the vessel to enter the port.
If the authorization from FSB is pending, the Harbour Master will give a 24-hour advance notice to the vessel (Owners / agents) that the vessel cannot be included in traffic / mooring plan / port line up and operations are not allowed yet.
If the port call of a particular vessel is not granted from FSB, the Harbour Master will notify the Vessel (Owners / agents) and traffic control that the vessel is not allowed to call at the port.
The Harbour Master offices were instructed to confirm compliance with the new regulations not later than 23.07.2025.
At the Black Sea ports of Russia, the implementation of the presidential Decree is still being discussed between various authorities.
For example, at Novorossiysk port the implementation of the new procedure is only starting today.
As of 24.07.2025, no any single vessel's rejection has been reported yet at the ports of Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Taman, Kavkaz, basing on the limited information provided by the port authorities and shipping agencies.
We hope the new regulations do not have any immediate and meaningful impact on trading and the actual number of vessels' calls.
We would expect a limited number of cases where the vessels are not allowed to enter the ports, and only in the exceptional circumstances or with certain factors which may influence the decisions of the authorities.
Apart from the requirements for the advance notice and potential delays on arrival there should hopefully be no serious consequences for the industry in general.
This assumption is based on the fact that the country relies heavily on trade, both for exports and imports, and in this context the primary objective of the authorities is to ensure safety without affecting transport and logistics.
Points of concerns:
- from experience, the approach, decisions, actions, interpretations of the law by the authorities between different ports may vary significantly
- the criteria used by FSB when considering the vessel's call at port are unknown (for example, the previous calls at the Ukrainian ports or presence of the Ukrainian crew onboard which have not been a problem so far)
- at the moment it is still unclear whether any maximum timeframe is stipulated for FSB to take decision.