France says it has seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of Russia’s sanction-busting “shadow fleet”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the tanker, named the Grinch, was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag”.
The French navy, with the assistance of allies including the UK, boarded the vessel on Thursday morning between Spain and Morocco. French maritime authorities said that a search of the vessel had “confirmed the doubts as to the regularity of the flag”.
Russia’s embassy in Paris said it had not been informed of the seizure.
For those who are talking about rules-based order and international law, please understand that those ideas are dead. You can’t pretend there is a morally-just world police while Gaza is being leveled, Venezuela was invaded, war in Ukraine has continued for years, and China bullies Taiwan and the Philippines.
If you haven’t listened to it yet, I highly recommend Mark Carney’s speech from earlier this week at Davos. World leaders are just now coming to terms with the new reality of “might makes right”.
Edit, just to be clear: along the lines of this new world order, France is entirely in the right here. They had the opportunity to seize this tanker and was powerful enough to do so. As far as motive, they aren’t happy with how Russia is treating Ukraine. That’s it. To make excusses such as “but international law” and “gotta follow the rules” is nothing short of pathetic drivel.