In a commentary for a leading Russian legal media Pravo.ru, Konstantin Putrya announced that a project spanning a decade to draft Lex Maritima had been completed.
Lex Maritima is a unique body of globally accepted principles of maritime commercial law aimed at fostering the worldwide harmonisation of maritime law. He stressed that this is especially significant given the growing fragmentation of practice, and that it will evidently be of practical value in interpretation, teaching, and legislative drafting.
At the General Assembly of the CMI — Comité Maritime International held in Tokyo in May, Russia, represented by Russian Maritime Law Association, likewise voted to adopt Lex Maritima.
Putrya observed that last year’s environmental disaster in the Kerch Strait, involving the wreck of two oil-product tankers, prompted the authorities to pursue a stricter regulatory approach, including stricter oversight and tighter technical and environmental standards. This, in turn, has brought into sharper focus the issue of operating an ageing fleet and the need for its replacement.
Discussing the outlook for 2026, a partner of NAVICUS.LAW noted that Russia’s maritime sector is expected to continue adapting to sanctions, enhanced national logistics-security considerations, and the reorientation towards Eastern partners. If these trends persist, they may entail further isolation, the development of alternative operational structures, accelerated localisation and import substitution, increased regulatory attention to safety and environmental issues, and growing legal risk exposure.
