France intercepts another ‘shadow fleet’ tanker linked to Russian oil

PARIS – France’s navy has intercepted a sanctioned tanker linked to the Russian oil trade in the Atlantic Ocean and ordered it to head for the French mainland in a move Russia said was illegal.

French President Emmanuel Macron on June 1 posted a video on X showing commandos rappelling from helicopters onto the Tagor, during an operation on May 31 in international waters 740km west of Brittany.

The 252m-long tanker, which had sailed from Russia’s port of Murmansk, was suspected of flying under a false flag and intercepted with support from Britain, Macron said. It was sailing under the flag of Madagascar, according to vessel tracker MarineTraffic.

France’s Maritime Prefecture, the authority for maritime security, said the boarding team’s inspection of the vessel’s papers “confirmed suspicions regarding the irregularity of the flag flown”.

To skirt Western sanctions, Russia has relied on old vessels, known as the “shadow fleet”, to ship its oil and gas. France and Britain have vowed to obstruct them as part of a strategy to combat oil revenues that help fund Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.

“It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions, violate the law of the sea and finance the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than four years,” Macron wrote on X.

On June 1, the navy escorted the Tagor towards an anchorage off north-western France, said the Maritime Prefecture. It is the fourth sanctioned tanker the French have intercepted.

False flag

The EU has imposed 19 packages of sanctions against Russia, but Moscow continues to sell millions of barrels of oil to countries such as India and China, typically at discounted prices.

Western sanctions and a small number of interceptions have had little obvious impact on the “shadow fleet” at a time oil prices pushed higher by the Iran war offer tankers a big incentive.

Instead, it is the Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities that are stopping Moscow from capitalising on the spike in global fuel prices.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on June 1 that Russia would take measures to ensure the safety of shipping cargo in response to the incident.

In April, Russia deployed a frigate to escort two sanctioned vessels through the English Channel and said it had the right to defend itself against what it called piracy. Days later, Estonia said it would refrain from detaining Russian shadow fleet tankers, worried that such actions could provoke a military response from Moscow.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in March he had granted permission for the UK military to board ships belonging to the “shadow fleet”. However, shipping data shows that dozens of sanctioned vessels have continued to cross British waters.

In April, owners of the Mozambique-flagged tanker Deyna paid an undisclosed fine for its release after it was detained by France. REUTERS