French authorities have released a tanker believed to be part of Russia's shadow fleet used to evade oil sanctions. The vessel paid a penalty worth several million euros after being detained for three weeks in a Mediterranean port.
PARIS — Officials in France announced Tuesday that they have freed an oil tanker detained last month in Mediterranean waters, which authorities believe was operating as part of Russia’s covert shipping network designed to bypass international oil sanctions.
In a social media statement, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot revealed that the vessel named Grinch was permitted to depart French territorial waters following payment of a financial penalty worth “several million euros” and enduring “three weeks of costly immobilization.”
“Circumventing European sanctions comes at a price. Russia will no longer be able to finance its war with impunity through a ghost fleet off our coasts,” Barrot said.
French naval forces had redirected the vessel last month and secured it at the Fos-sur-Mer port during an investigation into allegations of operating without proper flag documentation. The ship’s crew members, all of Indian citizenship, remained aboard throughout the detention.
“As part of a guilty plea procedure the company that owns the vessel was sentenced by the Marseille judicial court to a financial penalty of confiscation,” according to a combined statement from the Marseille prosecutor’s office and regional maritime authorities.
Officials did not reveal the precise sum of the monetary penalty.
Intelligence reports suggest Russia operates more than 400 vessels to circumvent sanctions related to its military campaign in Ukraine. France and allied nations have pledged to intensify enforcement efforts.
This covert maritime operation consists of deteriorating ships and oil carriers controlled by obscure companies registered in non-sanctioning nations, operating under those countries’ flags.
In September, French naval personnel boarded another oil vessel off France’s Atlantic coastline that President Emmanuel Macron also connected to the shadow fleet operation. Putin condemned that seizure as an act of piracy.
The captain of that September incident faces trial next week on charges related to the crew’s alleged failure to comply with authorities.