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France has detained a Russia-linked oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean, prompting a furious response from the Kremlin, which has described the operation as bordering on “international piracy”.
French authorities confirmed that the tanker, Tagor, was intercepted on Sunday in international waters, more than 400 nautical miles west of Brittany, during a coordinated operation involving Britain and other international partners. According to prosecutors, the vessel’s Russian captain refused to comply with orders, necessitating direct intervention.
French President Emmanuel Macron shared footage of the operation on social media, showing commandos descending from a helicopter onto the tanker.
Defending the action, Macron said, “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.”
The detention marks France’s latest move against what Western governments describe as Russia’s “shadow fleet”, a network of vessels used to bypass sanctions imposed on Moscow’s oil exports following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow condemned the seizure and viewed the operation as unlawful.
“We consider these acts illegal. They border on international piracy.” He added that Russia was taking steps “to ensure the safety of its cargo”.
French officials said the Tagor had departed from Murmansk in northwestern Russia and was travelling towards Limbe in Cameroon when it was boarded. Authorities also alleged the tanker was falsely sailing under a Cameroonian flag.
The vessel is suspected of carrying Russian or Iranian oil despite international sanctions and has been linked by open-source database opensanctions.org to petroleum shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani. Officials, however, declined to comment directly on the reported connection.
Investigators said checks on the ship’s paperwork reinforced concerns over “the irregularity of the flag being flown”. The 23-member crew remained on board as the French navy escorted the tanker to an anchorage area for further inspections.
The prosecutor’s office in Brest has opened a criminal investigation into the failure to prove the vessel’s nationality, the absence of a valid flag, and the refusal to comply with authorities.
Britain confirmed its involvement in the operation. The UK Ministry of Defence said a British helicopter provided “tracking and monitoring in support of the French operation to board the tanker Tagor”.
“We are stepping up our response to shadow vessels, to choke off the funds that fuel Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” a British defence spokesperson said.
France has intensified scrutiny of suspected shadow fleet vessels in recent months. Since September, it has detained three other ships suspected of links to the network, though those vessels were later released after fines were paid.
In April, Paris announced plans to double penalties for ships operating without valid flags or refusing to cooperate with authorities. Nearly 600 vessels suspected of being part of Russia’s shadow fleet are currently under European Union sanctions.
