The IACS board has deliberated the ouster of the Naval Register of Russia

In announcing the decision to expel the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, the IACS explained that "as a result of the recent and tragic developments in Ukraine and the resulting actions undertaken by governments and other entities around the world, including, in particular, sanctions in the United Kingdom where it is domiciled the IACS, the board of the IACS has continuously examined the evolution of all the sanctions to ensure that be fully compliant with all legal provisions. As part of this ongoing evaluation, and subsequently the results of external legal advice, the of the IACS agreed today (Friday, ed) that the existing membership of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RMRS) at IACS is no longer sustainable. Hence and on the basis of the provisions of its Statute which requires the agreement of at least 75% of its members, the IACS Board therefore has adopted a resolution on the basis of which the accession to the IACS of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping is revoked with effect immediate'.

For its part, the Russian Naval Register denounced that "the March 10, 2022 the presidency of the IACS Council, in violation of the Statute and procedures of the association, raised the question of the immediate exclusion of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping by the association, with reference to the sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom against the Russian Federation in relation to the situation in Ukraine. And already on March 11, 2022, three-quarters of the IACS members adopted this decision by secret ballot despite the protest of RS and the objections of some members of the association'.

Obviously that of the expulsion of the Russian Register by the International Association of Classification Societies is a matter of goat wool. In the Statute of the IACS you can find if you want, and the board of the association evidently he wanted it, several requirements that now as now the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping can not satisfy, such as having sufficient international coverage insured by its own inspectors, coverage that evidently currently the Russian Registry can hardly guarantee cause of the sanctions imposed on Russia. Just as many are the reasons that the Russian Registry can find in the Statute for recriminate on the motivations and modalities of his exclusion from the international association, starting from the procedure laid down in the Statute to determine whether an associate of the IACS does not comply with the accession criteria to the association, a procedure that provides for methods and times not certainly respected on this occasion if not the one that requires that the three-quarters of the members of the Governing Council entitled to vote vote in favour of the decision.

Precisely by appealing to this procedure provided for by the Statute, the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, pointing out that the IACS council has however stated that there is no doubt on the quality of RS services in promoting safety of navigation, announced that it is preparing an appeal.