Russia Asks Trump Administration to Stop Chasing Sanctioned Tanker
The sanctioned tanker Bella 1 has been formally registered with the Russian flag and renamed, complicating American efforts to "pursue" and potentially seize the giant VLCC in a low-speed chase across the Atlantic. Russia has asked the Trump administration to give up the chase, according to the New York Times.
As of New Year's Day, Bella 1's Equasis record has yet to change, but she is back to broadcasting her position on AIS. Her transceiver has been set to broadcast her flag state as Russia and her MMSI as 273276460, a new number coded as Russian registration. As of Thursday, the vessel was in the North Atlantic and making eight knots towards the GIUK Gap, broadcasting "for orders" as her destination.
Changing flag state mid-voyage is legally possible using a loophole that only requires change in ownership or registration to skip the usual in-port formalities. This criterion is easily met: flag-hopping "shadow fleet" tankers may change their anonymous shell company ownership or their vessel registration multiple times per year.
In addition, Russia's government has quietly asked the White House to call off the pursuit of the tanker, the New York Times reports. Russia is a longtime ally of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, and continues to provide the Maduro regime with the cargoes of naphtha needed to dilute and export Venezuela's extra-heavy crude. Though Russia has commercial and military links with the designated-terrorist Maduro regime, the White House has cultivated close ties with Moscow and broadly aligned its European diplomacy with Russian foreign policy objectives; whether Washington will continue its own "blockade" enforcement action or accede to Russia's interests in the Bella 1 case remains to be seen. U.S. and Russian officials did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
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Separately, the U.S. has also announced sanctions on four anonymous shipowners for operating in the Venezuelan energy sector, and has blacklisted four related oil tankers. The vessels include the Nord Star, Rosalind (Lunar Tide), Della and Valiant.
“President Trump has been clear: We will not allow the illegitimate Maduro regime to profit from exporting oil while it floods the United States with deadly drugs,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “The Treasury Department will continue to implement President Trump’s campaign of pressure on Maduro’s regime.”
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