The aim of the present study was to reconstruct total Russian fisheries catch in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov for the period 1950 to 2010. Using catches presented by FAO on behalf of the USSR and Russian Federation as a baseline, total removals were estimated by adding estimates of unreported commercial catches, discards at sea, and unreported recreational and subsistence catches. Estimates for ‘ghost fishing’ were also made, but not included in the final reconstructed catch. Total removals by Russia were estimated to be 1.57 times the landings presented by FAO (taking into account USSR-disaggregation), with unreported commercial catches, discards, recreational, and subsistence fisheries representing an additional 30.6 %, 24.7 %, 1.0%, and 0.7 %, respectively. Discards reached their peak in the 1970s and 1980s during a period of intense bottom trawling for sprat that partially contributed to the large-scale fisheries collapse in the 1990s. Since the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, unreported catches, including from recreational and subsistence fisheries, are on the rise as a result of poverty, lack of consistent fisheries policies, and the lucrative gains from poaching, especially for sturgeon.