MARSEILLE: France on Tuesday released a tanker called Grinch suspected of being part of Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” after its owner paid a fine of several million euros, a minister said.
French forces and their allies boarded the oil tanker last month between Spain and Morocco after it started its journey in Russia. It was escorted to a port near the southern city of Marseille.
Ship tracking websites MarineTraffic and VesselFinder said the vessel had been flying a Comoros flag.
The ship is suspected of being part of a shadow fleet that carries oil for countries such as Russia and Iran in violation of US sanctions.
“The tanker Grinch is leaving French waters after paying several million euros and enduring a costly three-week immobilization in Fos-sur-Mer,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X.
Russia has reportedly built up a flotilla of old tankers of opaque ownership to get around sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United States and the G7 group of nations, over Moscow’s 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine.
The sanctions, aimed at limiting Moscow’s revenues to pursue its war, have shut out many tankers carrying Russian oil from Western insurance and shipping systems.
“Evading European sanctions comes at a price. Russia will no longer be able to bankroll its war with impunity through a shadow fleet off our shores,” Barrot said.
The public prosecutor’s office and regional authorities said that, “as part of a guilty plea procedure, the company that owns the vessel was sentenced by the Marseille judicial court to a financial penalty.”
“The company, which has already taken numerous steps in this direction, has committed to obtaining a new flag as soon as possible,” they said in a joint statement, without adding where the owner was based.
A ship called Grinch is under UK sanctions, while another named Carl with the same registration number is sanctioned by the United States and European Union.
The boarding last month was the second of its kind in recent months.
France in September detained a Russian-linked ship called the Boracay, a vessel claiming to be flagged in Benin, a move Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned as “piracy.”
The Boracay’s Chinese captain is to stand trial in France next week.
The European Union lists 598 vessels suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet” that are banned from European ports and maritime services.
