To appreciate the booming Russian fossil fuels trade, one need only go to a rooftop cafe along the Bosporus. Back in March, while sipping tea on an Istanbul terrace, I watched as, over the course of two hours, at least four tankers – later identified through open-source marine traffic websites – carried Russian crude and refined products through one of the world’s busiest shipping chokepoints. A recent report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and the Center for the Stud