France says it has seized an oil tanker in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of Russia’s sanction-busting “shadow fleet”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the tanker, named the Grinch, was “subject to international sanctions and suspected of flying a false flag”.
The French navy, with the assistance of allies including the UK, boarded the vessel on Thursday morning between Spain and Morocco. French maritime authorities said that a search of the vessel had “confirmed the doubts as to the regularity of the flag”.
Russia’s embassy in Paris said it had not been informed of the seizure.
For those who are talking about rules-based order and international law, please understand that those ideas are dead. You can’t pretend there is a morally-just world police while Gaza is being leveled, Venezuela was invaded, war in Ukraine has continued for years, and China bullies Taiwan and the Philippines.
If you haven’t listened to it yet, I highly recommend Mark Carney’s speech from earlier this week at Davos. World leaders are just now coming to terms with the new reality of “might makes right”.
Edit, just to be clear: along the lines of this new world order, France is entirely in the right here. They had the opportunity to seize this tanker and was powerful enough to do so. As far as motive, they aren’t happy with how Russia is treating Ukraine. That’s it. To make excusses such as “but international law” and “gotta follow the rules” is nothing short of pathetic drivel.
When the US did this, everyone was quick to call it piracy. Which, to be fair, it practically was, although I can’t say I have any sympathy for Putin.
I wrote this on another post, but copying it here because it’s same shit, different user (or is it?)
Yeah you’re leaving about a tonne of relevant details and context out.
Like that I too can make idiotic assertions.
Ukraine bombed Russian oil refineries! How could they, they’re so evil, can you imagine them attacking European infrastructure?
See what I did there? I left out the little tid bit of Russia being a cruel dictatorship supported by oligarchs who invaded Ukraine for bullshit reasons and has committed genocide multiple times now, which is the reason for Ukraine fighting back.
Now you do you. Look at what you wrote and point out the list of issues that explains all you wrote, but that you conveniently left out.
Illt wait
Did you assume I was defending Putin on this?
Putin’s a piece of shit and I hope all his crap gets plundered and the proceeds transferred to the Ukrainian drone fund.
So now the EU stealing oil as well?
When Finland has been boarding ships in the Gulf of Finland (not just oil, the last one was carrying steel), it has eventually let them go.
But the context has been different: Finland has boarded ships when they’ve dragged their anchors, which places a gas pipeline, electrical and communications cables in immediate danger, and has resulted in those breaking in the past, which is very expensive and threatens people with loss of services.
France boarded the ship because they suspected it was not displaying its true flag.
Last I checked, they ordered it to travel to an anchoring place and wait, while officials and courts move to sort out the matter. What will become of the ship is not yet known. But there is a precendent, if you read the article:
Last October, France seized another sanctioned tanker, the Boracay, off its west coast before releasing it a few days later.
Well technically it’s embargoed oil so not quite the same as the Venezuelan fiasco (and Venezuela just got a $300M cheque from Trump for some of that oil).
If you beat up someone and then leave some money in their pocket, this is still an assault, not a boxing match.
You’re stretching it - it’s not highway robbery when you catch someone driving a car with fake plates and smuggled goods in the back
Your scenario makes sense only from the perspective of basically the police and in international relationships there is no police.
So countries should be entirely free to do anything they want and nobody is morally correct to stop them?
Of course not on either of the statements.
But I am wondering how can enforcement be done without concentrating power in one county like the US because as we can see this system is very easy to abuse.
Flying false flags is a valid reason for a country to board a ship, according to UNCLOS.
And america painted their planes as civilian ones.
This is a war crime. I am pointing it out because my point is that international law doesn’t exist. The only differentiating factor is wether you are strong enough avoid being judged.
The existence of crime is not a proof of the inexistence of law. Not that I disagree with the general sentiment that international law is applied to the convenience of whoever is stronger, but the US doing something wrong and not getting punished for it has very little to do with France doing something specifically allowed
so… stealing cargo ships is now okay.
i wonder what yall gonna think of this when russia and china start doing it.
Yeah you’re leaving about a tonne of relevant details and context out.
Like that I too can make idiotic assertions.
Ukraine bombed Russian oil refineries! How could they, they’re so evil, can you imagine them attacking European infrastructure?
See what I did there? I left out the little tid bit of Russia being a cruel dictatorship supported by oligarchs who invaded Ukraine for bullshit reasons and has committed genocide multiple times now, which is the reason for Ukraine fighting back.
Now you do you. Look at what you wrote and point out the list of issues that explains all you wrote, but that you conveniently left out.
Illt wait
Internternationally sanctioned.
If you agree to play by the rules then don’t be suprised when enforcement happens.
They chose to join this global economy and there are rules to follow.
unilaterally sanctioned* same applies to venezuela, cuba and others btw.
the “international community” isn’t composed solely of the western world, but that’s what it looks like from the global south.
The rules-based order is dead, and there is no world police. Countries just take what they think they can get away with. Otherwise, there would be aid flowing into Palestine, Venezuela wouldn’t have been attacked by the US, and everyone wouldn’t be fighting over Greenland.
Like how Russia invaded Ukraine and keeps committing war crimes?
