France releases suspected Russian shadow fleet tanker after multimillion-euro penalty

PARIS (AP) — French authorities said Tuesday they released a tanker intercepted last month in the Mediterranean Sea which is suspected of being part of Russia’s sanctioned shadow fleet shipping oil in violation of international sanctions.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said in a post on X that the tanker Grinch is to leave French waters after having paid a penalty of “several million euros” and “three weeks of costly immobilization.”

“Circumventing European sanctions comes at a price. Russia will no longer be able to finance its war with impunity through a ghost fleet off our coasts,” Barrot said.

The French military diverted the ship last month and anchored it in the port of Fos-sur-Mer as part of an investigation into a charge of failure to fly a valid flag. The crew of Indian nationality was being kept on board.

“As part of a guilty plea procedure the company that owns the vessel was sentenced by the Marseille judicial court to a financial penalty of confiscation,” the Marseille prosecutor’s office and regional maritime authorities said in a joint statement.

The exact amount of the fine was not disclosed.

Russia is believed to be using a fleet of over 400 ships to evade sanctions over its war against Ukraine. France and other countries have vowed to crack down.

The fleet comprises aging vessels and tankers owned by nontransparent entities with addresses in non-sanctioning countries, and sailing under flags from such countries.

Last September, French naval forces boarded another oil tanker off the French Atlantic coast that President Emmanuel Macron also linked to the shadow fleet. Putin denounced that interception as an act of piracy.

That tanker’s captain is to go on trial next week over the crew’s alleged refusal to cooperate.