France’s dramatic boarding of a Russia-linked oil tanker in the Atlantic has triggered an angry response from Moscow, with the Kremlin branding the operation “illegal” and likening it to “piracy” after Paris said the ship was breaching international sanctions.
“We consider these acts as illegal, they border on international piracy,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that “Russia is taking measures to ensure the safety of its cargo.”
French authorities say the seizure followed the Russian captain’s refusal to obey orders from the French navy. A prosecutor said the captain would not comply, and that “taking control of the vessel proved necessary”.
In a social media post, French President Emmanuel Macron said the French navy had intercepted “a new tanker under international sanctions” on the previous morning, describing the vessel as originating from Russia and identifying it as the Tagor.
“Our determination is steadfast and unwavering. This operation was carried out in the Atlantic, in international waters, with the support of several partners including the United Kingdom, in strict compliance with the law of the sea.
“It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions, violate the law of the sea, and fund the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than four years.
“These vessels, which fail to adhere to the most basic rules of maritime navigation, also pose a threat to the environment and to everyone’s safety.”
The post was accompanied by video showing French troops descending by rope from a helicopter onto the tanker’s deck, along with night-vision images of armed personnel moving along a gangway aboard the ship.
Oil tanker with ties to Iranian magnate
Suspected of transporting Russian or Iranian oil in defiance of international sanctions, the Tagor is linked to petroleum shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, according to the open-source database Opensanctions.org.
French officials said the tanker was travelling from Murmansk in northwestern Russia when it was boarded.
A spokesperson for France’s Atlantic maritime prefecture said the ship was falsely flying a Cameroonian flag and had been heading for Limbe, a coastal city in western Cameroon.
The prefecture said the interception took place 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.
The ship had 23 crew members and was “being escorted by the French navy to an anchorage point for further checks”, according to the prefecture.
Officials declined to comment when asked about the vessel’s alleged links to Mr Shamkhani.
Mr Shamkhani is the son of security official Ali Shamkhani, who was an adviser to former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, both of whom were killed on 28 February, the first day of the US-Israeli attacks that started the Middle East war.
The Russian embassy in France said it had sought details from French authorities on who was aboard the tanker.
“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 flown the flags of Madagascar, the Marshall Islands and Panama.
Prosecutors reiterated that “taking control of the vessel proved necessary”.
The prosecutor’s office in the northwestern city of Brest said it had opened a criminal investigation into failure to prove a vessel’s nationality, the 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 vessel was under EU and US sanctions.
“The decision to divert it was taken Sunday evening,” he added. “The objective of the diversion is to verify the validity of its flag.”
The interception is the latest effort by Western countries to disrupt what Moscow’s critics describe as a “shadow fleet” — tankers used to ship exports from Russia while skirting sanctions imposed after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Such vessels often switch flags — a tactic known as flag-hopping — or rely on questionable registrations in a bid to evade scrutiny and tracking.
Three other ships detained by France since September on suspicion of being part of the shadow fleet were later permitted to continue their voyages after their owners paid fines.
In April, France said it would double penalties for vessels that fail to fly a flag or refuse to comply.
Western governments have sanctioned hundreds of ships linked to Russia’s shadow fleet over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Nearly 600 ships suspected of belonging to the fleet are subject to European Union sanctions.
The UK and France have both pledged to stop Russian-flagged ships from transiting their waters.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in March 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 Russia-linked tanker crossing the Atlantic from Venezuela.
Britain also assisted France in detaining a Russian oil tanker, the Grinch, in the Mediterranean.
Additional reporting: PA
