RTFri, 03 Oct 2025 09:28 UTC
The oil tanker Boracay, off Saint-Nazaire, France, October 2, 2025
Paris has detained an oil tanker it claims to be part of the "Russian shadow fleet"
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced France's detention of an oil tanker that it claims carried Russian cargo as "piracy," noting the seizure took place in neutral waters without justification.Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday, Putin argued that investigators were searching for "military cargo, drones, or something of that kind," but insisted "none of that is there, never was, and never could be."
Media reports have suggested the investigation may be linked to unidentified drones spotted near Danish airports and military sites last month. There have been suggestions that the UAVs may have been Russian, an accusation Moscow has denied.
Putin also noted that
the tanker was sailing under a foreign flag with an international crew, questioning whether it had any connection to Russia at all.
The vessel in question, the
Boracay, is sanctioned by the EU and was sailing under a Benin flag when French naval forces boarded it last week. It remains anchored near Saint-Nazaire, with its captain and first mate in custody as prosecutors investigate "serious irregularities."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized France for speaking "in the language of riddles," pointing to the lack of specifics in the accusations.
She argued that the EU invented the concept of a "shadow fleet" in violation of maritime law and is now attempting to impose "illegal" secondary sanctions worldwide.The EU maintains that Russia relies on a clandestine network of tankers to skirt restrictions on oil exports imposed after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. Officials in Brussels say the fleet, often using flags of convenience and opaque ownership structures, poses security and environmental risks while sustaining Moscow's revenues. The bloc has blacklisted certain ships, tightened port inspections, and pressured third countries and companies to avoid dealings with Russia as part of its broad sanctions campaign against the country.
Putin has suggested that the detention of the vessel was an attempt by the French leadership to distract attention from the country's domestic problems.
Comment: Macron at the meeting in Copenhagen
upped the rhetoric on Russia:
Macron, speaking at an EU event in Copenhagen, said he could not rule out a connection between the vessel and the drone incursions, but so far lacked proof. The tanker raid was part of a wider plan to take tougher actions to limit Russia's oil sales and press for an end to the war in Ukraine, he said.
"We want to increase pressure on Russia to convince it to return to the negotiating table," he said. "We have now decided to take a step further by moving towards a policy of obstruction when we have suspicious ships in our waters that are involved in this trafficking."
He said NATO members would in coming days coalesce around more concrete measures to step up their campaign against Russia's "shadow fleet", which he estimated at 800-1,000 vessels.
Thus he revealed that the bigger aim is to stop Russian tanker fleet which in the context points to that the drones in recent weeks were a false flag operation.The drones were particularly seen over Denmark, which was scheduled to host this summit and gave a convenient pretext to start the maritime piracy. They truly are getting desperate, needing any distraction to cast the light away from their dismal popularity and the disastrously failing Ukrainian adventure.
UPDATE:
Tanker resumes voyage after French navy raid - maritime tracker
According to MarineTraffic, the Benin-flagged 'Boracay' is now crossing the Bay of Biscay on its way to the Suez Canal after apparently being released on Thursday evening.
[...]
Putin denounced the interception of the vessel during his remarks at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday. He argued that France had neither jurisdiction nor justification to seize the ship and dismissed claims of Russian ownership as dubious.
Putin further suggested that President Emmanuel Macron was exploiting anti-Russian rhetoric to distract from domestic issues. The French leader is seeking "to provoke us into some actions and then tell the French: 'Rally around me, I'll lead you to victory'. Like Napoleon," Putin explained.
Macron linked the tanker to sightings of mystery drones over Denmark, noting that its voyage from the Russian port of Primorsk took it past the Nordic country. Putin rejected the allegation, asserting that the vessel could not be transporting military cargo.
Perhaps reality hit Macron or some people around him with a little more common sense, decided that this was a very bad path to go down.
We all know that Russia always has had spy vessels sailing near France, especially near the military bases (Brest, St Nazaire, Biscarrosse)... Each time there was a missile test going on at the Biscarrosse military base, one could hear Russia sailors talking to their "families" on radio amateurs' frequencies... LOOOL
I know because i used to listen to them with dad.
SO... there's nothing new in here, and all this buzz, is just "comedia dell'arte"