US Seizes Russia-Flagged Tanker After Chase Across Atlantic

Soon after Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. A couple of years later, they had started sanctioning this shadow fleet of oil tankers and adding to the existing sanctions on tankers transporting Iranian oil, Venezuelan oil. But no one had enforced those sanctions until now.

So this just shows the hollowness of that previous policy. You could blacklist these tankers, but they could still sail fairly freely on the high seas. And the US has taken dramatic action to stop that.

Now, the one that they seized off the coast of Iceland today had been sanctioned in 2024 for carrying Iranian oil. It had taken a trip from Venezuela, changed its flag, hastily painted a Russian flag on on the ship and changed its name. And the US Coast Guard boarded it, despite it being escorted by a Russian submarine.

Now, I think Putin's got to be worried because the price of oil is coming down. The price of Russian oil in particular has come down as a result of US sanctions. And now the US is finally decided to enforce those sanctions on blacklisted these shadow fleet tankers.

So that's going to spell trouble for him in terms of Russian oil revenues dropping even further. Stephanie, is there a sense that today's action is a one off isolated event or maybe signal a significant change in U.S. policy as it relates to these this shadow fleet?

You know, it's not a one off policy. And in fact, U.S. Southern Command just announced that they had seized another tanker in the Caribbean, a Venezuela we believe to be a Venezuelan linked tanker.

It was flagged last and that they are transporting it to the US. So it does seem, particularly with any tanker linked to Venezuela, that they will go after it as a way of enforcing this blockade on Venezuela and ensuring that Venezuela's new president, Nelson Rodriguez, tows the line and does what the US says.