France boards tanker it says is linked to Russian shadow fleet in Mediterranean

(Reuters)

PARIS, March 20 – The French Navy seized an ​oil tanker on Friday in the Western Mediterranean that ‌President Emmanuel Macron said belonged to Russia’s shadow fleet, a network of vessels that enables Moscow to export oil despite Western sanctions.

Local officials told ​Reuters earlier on Friday that the navy had boarded ​a Mozambique-flagged vessel named Deyna that was suspected of ⁠flying a false flag. The ship had been sailing ​from the Russian port of Murmansk.

The operation was carried out with ​British allies, the French Mediterranean prefecture said.

Russia, which has had increasing international sanctions imposed on it over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, did not immediately ​comment on the tanker’s seizure. It has previously called the ​seizure of its tankers or vessels carrying its cargoes an act of piracy.

At ‌the ⁠prosecutor’s request, the vessel was escorted to an anchorage point for further inspection, the French military said.

“These ships, which circumvent international sanctions and violate the law of the sea, are war ​profiteers,” Macron wrote ​in a ⁠post on X. “They seek to reap profits and finance Russia’s war effort.”

It was the second such ​interception by France in recent months. In January, ​France stopped ⁠the oil tanker Grinch between the southern coast of Spain and the northern coast of Morocco on suspicion that it was part ⁠of ​the Russian shadow fleet.

The French navy assisted ​Belgium in a third operation earlier in March.