On 8 January, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed “serious concern” over the detention of the oil tanker Bella 1 (Marinera) by the US military in the Atlantic Ocean. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, this was an “illegal forceful action” against the vessel.
The ministry said that the tanker had received a temporary permission to sail under the Russian flag on 24 December and was making a “peaceful passage” in the international waters of the North Atlantic, heading for one of the Russian ports. The US, according to the Foreign Ministry, has repeatedly received information about the tanker’s Russian ownership and its “peaceful status”.
The Foreign Ministry notes that stopping and inspecting a vessel on the high seas is possible only on a closed list of grounds, such as piracy or slave trade, which does not apply to the tanker Bella 1. In other cases, such actions are allowed only with the consent of the flag state, Russia has not given such consent and has officially protested to the U.S. authorities in connection with the pursuit of the tanker by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Foreign Ministry added.
The ministry called the US side’s references to its national sanctions legislation “groundless”. According to Moscow’s version, the restrictive measures of the US and other Western countries are of an illegitimate nature. The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed regret and alarm” over Washington’s “readiness to generate acute international crisis situations.”
In late December, the US Coast Guard attempted to detain the Panama-flagged tanker Bella 1 in the Caribbean Sea, which was said to be heading to Venezuela. Washington claimed the vessel was on the US Treasury Department’s sanctions lists because it was carrying sub-sanctioned oil. The crew, consisting of citizens of Russia, Ukraine and India, refused to comply with the US military’s demands, and subsequently the tanker’s crew members painted a Russian flag on its side. The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia sent a submarine and “other naval forces” to escort the tanker.
The US seized the tanker on the afternoon of 7 January between Iceland and the British Isles. A U.S. helicopter landing party boarded the vessel. Reuters reported that Russian military vessels were in close proximity to the tanker and the US Coast Guard. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said after the operation was over that it was a “fake Russian tanker.” “They were trying to pass themselves off as a Russian oil tanker to get around the sanctions regime,” he told Fox News.