French navy, backed by the UK, intercepts Russian oil tanker

According to France, the tanker, which had sailed from Murmansk, was trying to ‘skirt international sanctions’.The French navy with support from the United Kingdom has intercepted an oil tanker suspected of being part of Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet”.French President Emmanuel Macron announced the interception in a post on X on Monday, saying the Tagor was boarded on Sunday in the Atlantic.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Israel, Russia among new additions on UN sexual violence ‘blacklist’list 2 of 4Rwanda-Russia nuclear deal underscores Africa’s shifting power balancelist 3 of 4Ukraine drones strike Russian oil facility, as Kyiv and Moscow trade blowslist 4 of 4Ukrainian drone attacks hit multiple Russian targets, including refineryend of listThe post included a video showing a person rappelling from a helicopter onto a ship.“It is unacceptable that boats skirt international sanctions, violate the law of the sea and finance the war that Russia has been waging for more than 4 years against Ukraine,” Macron wrote.“These ships, that don’t respect the most elementary rules of maritime navigation, are also a threat to the environment and everyone’s security.”According to French authorities, the tanker had sailed from Murmansk in northwestern Russia.The ship was falsely flying a Cameroonian flag, the maritime prefecture said, and was heading towards Limbe, a seaside city in western Cameroon.Guillaume Le Rasle, spokesman for the Atlantic maritime prefecture, said the tanker was under European Union and United States sanctions.“It is a vessel that was known and tracked,” he told the news agency AFP.“The decision to divert it was taken Sunday evening,” he added. “The objective of the diversion is to verify the validity of its flag.”The tanker, which has frequently changed flags, was “almost empty” at the time of boarding, he added.The last time it transmitted an automatic identification system signal, a week ago, the Tagor was sailing off the Norwegian coast and flying a Madagascan flag, according to the MarineTraffic tracker.