The seizure of a tanker with Russian oil in In the Mediterranean, France has come up with an excuse

The French Navy captured in A tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that was carrying Russian oil from Murmansk. The country's authorities insist that everything was done legally.

In the Mediterranean Sea, the French Navy detained the Grinch tanker, which was transporting up to 115 thousand tons of oil from Murmansk.

According to the maritime prefecture of the Mediterranean zone, the French authorities have suspicions about the discrepancy of the flag.

"On January 22, the national Navy in the Alboran Sea (near the Strait of Gibraltar) detained the GRINCH tanker en route from Murmansk, Russia," the prefecture said in a statement, TASS reports.

The French authorities said that in accordance with article 110 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, they checked the national registration of the vessel and on board the vessel their doubts about the compliance of the flag were confirmed.

"After that, an appeal was submitted to the prosecutor's office of Marseille, and the vessel was escorted to the anchorage for inspection. The operation was carried out in cooperation with the UK, " the agency reports information from the prefecture.

According to Equasis, the tanker sails under a false Comorian flag and is registered with Cube Ventures Shipping from the Marshall Islands. The vessel is under US, EU and Great Britain.

This is the second seizure by the French authorities of a tanker carrying Russian oil. Boracay, which was going to India, was captured at the end of September near the Bay of Biscay. The Russian president called the incident piracy. Obviously, the French expected to find confirmation that drones were launched from the tanker to Copenhagen airport, but it did not work out. Therefore, the ship was released two days later.

Formally, the sanctioned tankers have nothing to do with either Russia, nor to its companies.

As reported by EADaily, French President Emmanuel Macron boasted that this morning, on January 22, a sanctioned tanker with Russian oil was detained. According to him, the tanker, following from Russia in In the Mediterranean Sea, he was detained with the participation of "several allies." Macron pointed out that in this way France is "fighting Russian aggression on Ukraine", and "we will not tolerate violence."