Kremlin calls French seizure of tanker in Atlantic illegal

Russia has denounced France’s seizure of an oil tanker in the Atlantic, calling the operation “illegal” and likening it to “piracy” after Paris said the ship was breaching sanctions.

“We view these actions as illegal; they verge on international piracy,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that “Russia is taking measures to ensure the safety of its cargo.”

French prosecutors said the tanker’s Russian captain refused to obey orders from the French navy, leaving authorities with no choice but to board and take control of the vessel.

“Our determination remains firm and absolute. This operation took place in the Atlantic, in international waters, with support from several partners including the United Kingdom, in full accordance with the law of the sea.

“It is unacceptable for ships to dodge international sanctions, flout maritime law, and help finance the war Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than four years.

“These vessels, which disregard the most basic rules of maritime navigation, also create risks for the environment and for the safety of all.”

Video released alongside the statement showed French troops descending by rope from a helicopter onto the deck, along with night-vision images of armed personnel moving along a gangway aboard the ship.

Tanker linked to Iranian shipping magnate

The Tagor, suspected of transporting Russian or Iranian oil in defiance of international sanctions, is tied to petroleum shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, according to the open-source database Opensanctions.org.

French authorities said the Tagor had been travelling from Murmansk in northwestern Russia when it was intercepted and boarded.

The vessel was falsely sailing under a Cameroonian flag and was bound for Limbe, a coastal city in western Cameroon, according to a spokesperson for France’s Atlantic maritime prefecture.

The prefecture said the interception occurred more than 400 nautical miles (740km) west of Brittany.

“The examination of the documents confirmed doubts about the irregularity of the flag being flown,” the prefecture said.

With 23 crew members on board, the ship was “being escorted by the French navy to an anchorage point for further checks”, the prefecture added.

Asked about the vessel’s reported links to Mr Shamkhani, French officials declined to comment.

Mr Shamkhani is the son of security official Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Both men were killed on 28 February, the opening day of the US-Israeli attacks that triggered the Middle East war.

The Russian embassy in France said it had sought information from French authorities about who was on board.

“No notifications have been provided by the French side regarding actions taken against this vessel,” the embassy said on its Telegram channel.

The tanker has previously sailed under the flags of Madagascar, the Marshall Islands and Panama.

Prosecutors said that “taking control of the vessel proved necessary”.

The prosecutor’s office in Brest, in northwestern France, said it had opened a criminal investigation into failure to prove a vessel’s nationality, absence of a flag and refusal to comply.

“It is a vessel that was known and tracked,” Guillaume Le Rasle, spokesman for the Atlantic maritime prefecture, told AFP, adding that the ship was under EU and US sanctions.

“The decision to divert it was taken Sunday evening,” he said. “The objective of the diversion is to verify the validity of its flag.”

The seizure marks the latest move by Western countries against Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet, the web of tankers used to move Russian exports and skirt sanctions imposed after the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Ships in the shadow fleet often switch the flags they fly — a tactic known as flag-hopping — or rely on invalid registrations in an effort to avoid detection.

The three other vessels detained by France since September on suspicion of being part of the shadow fleet were later allowed to continue sailing after their owners paid fines.

In April, France announced plans to double penalties for ships that sail without a flag or refuse orders to comply.

Several Western governments have sanctioned hundreds of vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Nearly 600 ships suspected of being part of that fleet are now under European Union sanctions.

Both the UK and France have pledged to stop Russian-flagged ships from passing through their waters.

In March, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorised British forces to seize shadow fleet vessels, a move that prompted ships to steer away from the English Channel.

Earlier this year, the UK helped the US capture the Marinera, a Russian-linked tanker crossing the Atlantic from Venezuela.

It also assisted French authorities in the Mediterranean seizure of another Russian oil tanker, the Grinch.

Additional reporting: PA