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Strategies & Market Trends : World Outlook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (48078)	10/1/2025 4:58:14 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 48856

France detains two crew members of Russia-linked tanker off western French coast France on Wednesday detained two crew members of a Russian "shadow fleet" tanker seized off the coast of the French western port of Saint-Nazaire, according to the Brest prosecutor. Issued on: 01/10/2025 - 12:29 By: FRANCE 24 Two crew members of a Russian "shadow fleet" tanker seized off the French coast were taken into custody on Wednesday, according to the prosecutor for the western French port city of Brest. The tanker is suspected of being involved in drone overflights in Denmark, and the two detained crew members "presented themselves as the ship's captain and his first mate", said Brest prosecutor Stéphane Kellenberger. The prosecutor said the preliminary investigation is focused on "failure to provide proof of the vessel's nationality" and "refusal to comply" with instructions, for which the maximum penalty is one year in prison and a €150,000 ($175,000) fine. Earlier Wednesday French armed forces boarded the Boracay, a Benin-flagged vessel blacklisted by the European Union for being part of Russia's sanction-busting fleet of ageing oil tankers. France is probing the tanker, anchored off Saint-Nazaire in western France, for "serious offences", said President Emmanuel Macron – stopping short of confirming reports of a connection to mysterious drone flights in Denmark. French authorities have opened a probe into the Boracay, a Benin-flagged vessel anchored off France's Atlantic Coast that has been blacklisted by the European Union for being part of Russia's sanction-busting "shadow fleet". "There were some very serious offences committed by this crew, which justify the current judicial procedure," Macron told reporters at an EU leaders' summit in Copenhagen. Built in 2007 and variously known as Pushpa and Kiwala, the Boracay has been anchored off Saint-Nazaire in western France for several days. According to the specialist website The Maritime Executive, the vessel is suspected of being involved in mystery drone flights that disrupted air traffic in Denmark in September. The publication said the tanker and other ships could have been used either as launch platforms or as decoys. But when asked about those claims, Macron said he would "remain very careful", as it was not for him to establish a link between the Boracay and the drone flights. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of ageing tankers used by Russia to circumvent oil export curbs imposed after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine to sap Moscow's war chest. Among them is the Boracay, which was blacklisted in February under the name Kiwala. The public prosecutor's office in the northwestern French city of Brest said it had opened an investigation following a report from the navy. The probe was launched over the crew's "failure to justify the nationality of the vessel" and "refusal to cooperate", public prosecutor Kellenberger told AFP. The tanker left the Russian port of Primorsk outside Saint Petersburg on September 20 and was due to arrive in Vadinar in northwestern India on October 20, according to data from the Marine Traffic tracking website. france24.com The original source for the false drone story was Zelensky. There's no such thing as a decoy launch platorm for drones at sea.