Premiers and Chaos: Sāmoa’s tension

Cook Islands internationally wrong acts catching up in Helsinki

Rachele Andreani, from Chiavari, a town east of Genoa in Italy, huddles in a jacket emblazoned with the Cook Islands flag - a curious emblem for someone far removed from the Pacific.

Her social media profiles paint a picture of a life spent traveling across Europe, but curiously, never in Rarotonga. Odd, given her lofty title: “Head of Marine Operations and Compliance” at Maritime Cook Islands (MCI).

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Andreani stands on a rust-streaked walkway of the decrepit Cook Islands flagged tanker Eagle S, held under compulsory detention at the Porvoo anchorage, east of Helsinki—just 200 kilometres from a palatial dacha that is an occasional retreat for Vladimir Putin. The stakes of her work echo beyond appearances; weighty financial consequences hinge on Andreani’s role. Andreani is a key player in the scandal of the Cook Islands flag of convenience (FOC) operation and its role in Putin’s sanction busting dark fleet.

On Eagle S bridge: Cook Islands flag

The war in Ukraine is blissfully overlooked in Avarua, Avatui and Aitutaki. Andreani and MCI would rather people think of the Cook Island flag as synonymous with Monaco and super yachts. Instead it has now been associated with Russian sabotage of undersea cables and, following that, the US and British blacklisting of other Cook Islands flagged tankers.