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Macron has alleged that that the tanker belongs to Russia's
so-called shadow fleet of aging tankers of uncertain ownership
and safety practices that are avoiding Western sanctions over
Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Stéphane Kellenberger, prosecutor of the western port city of
Brest, said Thursday that the crew members presenting themselves
as the ship’s captain and chief mate have been in custody since
at least Wednesday.
A preliminary investigation was opened into the crew’s “refusal
to cooperate” and “failure to justify the nationality of the
vessel” after the Atlantic Maritime Prefect alerted justice
authorities Monday, Kellenberger said.
The tanker, which was sailing last week off the coast of
Denmark, was cited by European naval experts as possibly being
involved in drone flights over the country.
French naval forces forcibly boarded the ship a few days ago at
the request of prosecutors who suspected wrongdoing, a military
official said Wednesday.
The ship was ordered to stay in place pending further
investigation, according to the official, who was not authorized
to be publicly named discussing an ongoing investigation.
The ship left the Russian oil terminal in Primorsk near St.
Petersburg on Sept. 20, sailed off the coast of Denmark and has
stayed off the coast of the French western port of Saint-Nazaire
since Sunday, according to the Marine Traffic monitoring
website.
“There were some very serious wrongdoings made by this crew,"
Macron said Wednesday on the sidelines of a European Union
leaders summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. He added this
“highlights” the existence of Russia's “notorious shadow fleet.”
The tanker known as “Pushpa” or “Boracay,” whose name has
changed several times, was sailing under the flag of Benin and
appears on a list of ships targeted by EU sanctions against
Russia.
The shadow fleet is made up of used, aging tankers that were
often bought by nontransparent entities with addresses in
non-sanctioning countries and were sailing under flags from
non-sanctioning countries. Their role is to help Russia’s oil
exporters elude the price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.
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