Was the antivirus delaying the capture of the Russian ship? How a replica of a frigate, which was on the sanctions list, sailed into Montenegro

If the government's IT security system had not eliminated an email from a French association that informed several ministries on May 20 that the ship "Štandart" ("TS Shtandart"), which the European Union (EU) has placed on a list of sanctioned Russian vessels, was in Montenegrin waters, this replica of a frigate from the early 18th century might have been "processed" (detained or expelled), instead of leaving the country without consequences a few days later.

Such a conclusion could be drawn from the response of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs to questions from "Vijesti" about a ship that was in Montenegrin waters in May, but was not allowed to because the country, as a candidate for EU membership, is applying restrictive measures towards Russia.

The organization “No 'Standard' in Europe” informed the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Maritime Affairs - as well as the Maritime Safety Administration and the management of the Port of Kotor - that the vessel was (was) in Montenegro, stating that this represents a move by which Montenegro and its competent state authorities violate the application of sanctions imposed by the Union on Russia due to its aggression against Ukraine (which began in February 2022).

The association stated - in a letter that was also forwarded to the European Commission, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the Maritime Prefecture of the Mediterranean in Toulon (France) - that the "Standart" falls under sanctions because it is a replica of a historic ship, and that the fact that it replaced the Russian flag, under which it sailed, with the flag of the Cook Islands does not exclude the sanctions regime.

As the editorial team announced last week, the ship left the country (where it had been for about fifteen days) after receiving a letter from the French organization, turning off the tracking system.

During its stay in the country, a replica of an old Russian three-masted warship weighing 220 tons sailed through Boka Bay and the waters of Montenegro on several occasions. The ship and its crew, led by Captain Vladimir Martus they are previously completed the state border crossing procedures with the competent authorities without any problems.

Delayed official information

The Maritime Ministry told "Vijesti" that the "Standart" had legally sailed into Montenegro, without specifying when, that they did not have valid information about its "specific status" at the time, and that by the time they received it, the sailboat had already left the country's territorial waters.

Radio Kotor announced that the ship entered the port there on May 10th.

The Ministry says that the replica of the Russian frigate entered Montenegrin waters under the flag of the Cook Islands, under which it has been legally sailing since June 2024, and with "proper maritime documents" from that country.

"The Port Authority, as a body within the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, approved the entry based on regular legal procedures, since the ship had proper maritime documents and the flag of the Cook Islands - a country that is not under a regime of restrictive measures," the department it manages notes. Filip Radulović, explaining that - since the regular border control system primarily identifies vessels based on their valid flag and registry - the specific status of this vessel required subsequent interdepartmental verification.

They state that at the time of approving the entry, the Ministry did not have “official and institutionally verified information” about the “specific status of the ship”, because it was registered in official maritime systems under the flag of the Cook Islands. They claim that the email from a “foreign non-governmental organization” (“No 'Shtandart' in Europe”), sent on May 20 to official addresses, was automatically marked by the Government’s IT security system (antivirus control) as unsafe content with a potential threat, and that therefore the attachments with information were automatically eliminated, so the message could not be taken into the official procedure.

The Maritime Affairs Department points out that the “official and safe knowledge” came only after verification and activation of the system through the Government’s Permanent Coordination Body for Restrictive Measures (SKT). ​​This, they explain, happened on May 28, when, immediately after receiving the official notification through a member of the SKT, the information was forwarded to the General Directorate for Navigation Safety. However, it was already too late to “catch” the ship.

"On the same day, the Director General issued an order to the port authorities (Bar and Kotor) and the Navigation Safety Inspectorate to urgently locate and deal with the ship. The inspection determined that the ship 'TS Shtandart' had already left the territorial waters of Montenegro on May 26 and sailed towards the Republic of Greece (port of Corfu)," the Ministry said.

They say that, in the meantime, the Directorate has already taken preventive measures and issued clear guidelines to port authorities to locate and act towards the ship in accordance with the EU Council regulation (which provides for a ban on access to ports for Russian vessels covered by EU sanctions) if operational announcements about its possible return to Montenegrin waters are confirmed.

According to the navigation plan from the "Štandart" website (shtandart.eu), the sailboat should be in Montenegro from June 30 to August 3.

The editorial office wrote in March that in the new systematization of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, the obligation to "monitor restrictive measures" has disappeared from the job descriptions of all its officials - including those in the Kotor and Bar port authorities, who previously had this in their job descriptions.

This referred to the application of international sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the EU on certain countries, individuals or companies, which Montenegro is obliged to implement. In specific cases, some of the employees in the Kotor and Bar port authorities, according to the previous systematizations of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, clearly had in their job descriptions monitoring restrictive measures, i.e. ensuring that ships or yachts belonging to, for example, sanctioned Russian oligarchs or other countries and companies subject to international restrictive measures, do not enter Montenegrin waters.

School ship or...?

Russian maritime entrepreneur, naval engineer, sailor and maritime heritage enthusiast Vladimir Martus built a replica of the 1703 Russian frigate "Standart" in 1999 with the intention of the ship sailing as a living museum and as a school sailing ship on which young people from all over the world learn maritime craft and navigation skills.

Ten permanent crew members help young volunteers from all over the world master these skills. The “Standart” flew the Russian flag, and in 2009, Martus took his ship from St. Petersburg to Western Europe because he disagreed with the policies of the Russian president’s government. Vladimir PutinAfter Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the EU began imposing increasingly stringent sanctions against Moscow and its commercial interests, Martus re-registered his replica of the old Russian frigate under the Cook Islands flag in June 2024. The Standart has spent most of its time since leaving Russia in France, where the ship was stationed in the port of La Rochelle.

In the past few years, Martus has been trying in every way to distance himself from Putin's Russia and its policies before EU institutions and maritime authorities in European countries, and in this regard, he recently sent a letter to the Maritime Prefecture of France.

"When Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, this event deeply affected the crew. The captain and the entire crew unequivocally reject this war of aggression, which has been expressed in public statements. It is important to clearly emphasize that neither the captain, nor the crew, nor the project has ever supported Russia's war against Ukraine...", Martus stated, adding that he and his ship were particularly hard hit by the EU's decision in 2024 to expand the scope of sanctions against Russian ships to "replicas of historical ships."

"In this way, we are directly associated with the so-called Russian 'shadow fleet', which is completely inappropriate because it puts, for example, a 300-meter supertanker transporting sanctioned Russian oil on the same level as our small training ship, which has no financial ties to Russia and which is clearly opposed to war...", he assessed.