Russian captain to stand trial after shadow fleet | Political News

An oil tanker captain caught off France’s Atlantic coast, which President Emmanuel Macron linked to Russia, can be trialed in February over the crew’s alleged refusal to cooperate, a French prosecutor said Thursday.

Macron claimed the tanker belongs to Russia‘s so-called shadow fleet of getting older tankers of unsure possession that are avoiding Western sanctions over Russia‘s conflict in Ukraine.

An investigation into the crew’s “refusal to cooperate” and “failure to justify the nationality of the vessel” was launched after the Atlantic Maritime Prefect alerted justice authorities Monday, Stéphane Kellenberger, prosecutor of the western port metropolis of Brest, told the Associated Press.

Kellenberger said two Chinese crew members, the captain and the chief mate, who had been detained since Tuesday, have been launched from police custody. The chief mate has been launched without charge.

European naval consultants said the tanker could also be concerned in drone flights over the nation. The tanker was crusing off the coast of Denmark last week.

Members of the French Navy intervened and boarded the ship on Saturday off France’s Atlantic coast in line with worldwide law when there appeared to be a discrepancy between its obvious nationality and real nationality, Kellenberger said.

An investigation, led by the French Navy, discovered that the ship, coming from Russia and heading to India with a “large oil shipment,” was flying no flag, he added. The captain, who faces up to one yr in prison and a 150,000-euro ($176,000) fantastic, was summoned for trial in Brest on Feb. 23.

On Thursday, Macron praised the work of the French navy to “identify the presence of a shadow fleet.”

“You kill the business model by detaining even for days or weeks these vessels and forcing them to organize themselves differently,” he said.

“It represents more than €30 billion. So it’s extremely important to increase the pressure on this shadow fleet, because it will clearly reduce the capacity to finance this war effort for Russia,” Macron said while talking at a European summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. He also said, “30 to 40%” of Russia’s conflict effort is “financed through the revenues of the shadow fleet.”

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Macron said the ship was flying a pretend flag but that it was “exactly the same” one detained by Estonia earlier this yr for the same flag issue.

Estonian public broadcaster EE reported that the ship, then recognized as “Kiwala,” was stopped outdoors Tallinn Bay in April on its means to the Russian port of Ust-Luga. Prime Minister Kristen Michal tweeted that Estonia’s navy had “detained a sanctioned vessel with no flag state” and authorities had boarded the ship.

The ship, now identified as “Pushpa” or “Boracay,” left the Russian oil terminal in Primorsk close to St. Petersburg on Sept. 20 and sailed off the coast of Denmark.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, when questioned about the ship by journalists, said he had “no information” on the ship. Peskov also said that many international locations have been finishing up “provocative actions” against Russia.