The "Rhosus", a garbage ship with explosive cargo

In Lebanon, now, everyone knows this date. November 21, 2013, the day the Rhosus entered the port of Beirut, with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in its holds. Almost seven years later, its cargo exploded, devastating the heart of the Lebanese capital. At the time, no one really paid attention to this 86-meter-long bulk carrier, built in Japan in 1986, whose complicated course is just one more example of the opacity that reigns in contemporary maritime traffic.

To read also: Lebanon: in Beirut, the boat at the origin of the explosion was "a floating bomb"

According to various specialist publications, after long wanderings, she has been registered since 2008 in the name of Brianwoodcorp, a company based in Panama, and has been sailing since 2012 under the Moldovan flag. This former Soviet republic is notorious for issuing flags of convenience to garbage ships. On the same date, its charterer is a company domiciled in Cyprus, bought that same year by a Russian citizen, Igor Grechushkin, 43, who also holds the nationality

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