Nikolai Sukhanov is used to flags of convenience. The flags of many nations flutter from the stern of ships on the docks and quays of Nakhodka in Russia’s far east. Owners often register their vessels thousands of miles from home, in countries with far looser regulations and restrictions than their own.
Sukhanov, a veteran trade union organiser, spends his days clambering onto ships berthed in the Pacific port, checking that sailors are treated well and paid properly. They very often are not.
That is not just because they sail under flags of convenience. It is also because they work for ‘firms of convenience’: shell companies, ghost entities, corporate ciphers which conceal ownership and frustrate accountability.
