Russia strongly condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker on Thursday, heralding a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington that could spread to other regions and undermine President Donald Trump’s efforts to persuade Russia to end its nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
The seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic on Wednesday “will only lead to a further escalation of military and political tensions in the Euro-Atlantic region and significantly lower the ‘threshold for the use of force’ against peaceful shipping,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to comment on the seizure of the oil tanker and has remained silent on the U.S. detention of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, which his diplomats condemned as a blatant act of aggression.
While the Russian president avoided any criticism of Trump, the seizure of the tanker by U.S. forces represents a new challenge for the Kremlin.
Hawkish commentators in Moscow criticized the government’s failure to respond quickly and argued that Russia should have deployed its naval assets to protect ships in the shadow fleet.
Ukraine’s Western allies have long pledged to tighten sanctions on Russia’s fleet of shadow tankers used to ship oil to customers around the world, and many observers in Moscow have warned that the U.S. action could set a precedent for other countries.
Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said Russia has little choice but to use tough rhetoric as it considers how to respond to the seizure.
“Russians tend to scream and yell when they feel embarrassed, and in this case they were embarrassed because Russia’s power is not what Vladimir Putin portrays it to be,” Fried said. “There’s nothing they can do about the ship.”
U.S. European Command said the merchant ship Bella 1 was seized on Wednesday for “violating U.S. sanctions.” The U.S. began pursuing the tanker, which was renamed the Marinella and flew the Russian flag, last month after it tried to evade a blockade of sanctioned tankers around Venezuela.
The Trump administration has imposed an oil embargo on Venezuela, and the Energy Department has said the only oil entering and exiting Venezuela will be through approved channels consistent with U.S. law and national security interests.
How Russia views U.S. military actions
The foreign ministry said the US attempt to seize the tanker as part of a wider effort to control Venezuela’s oil wealth was a “totally cynical” reflection of “neo-colonial ambitions”.
The ministry called it a “serious violation” of international maritime law and insisted the ship had a Russian-flagged sailing permit issued in December. The statement said that the United States threatened to prosecute the crew “under ridiculous pretexts” and was “absolutely unacceptable.”
The statement said that the sanctions unilaterally imposed by the United States and other Western countries are “illegal” and cannot justify the seizure of ships on the high seas.
“Washington’s willingness to create serious international crisis situations, including in already extremely tense Russian-American relations, which have been affected by disagreements over the past few years, is a cause for regret and concern,” the ministry said.
The White House declined to comment Thursday when asked about the Foreign Ministry’s statement.
The seizure of the tanker prompted angry comments on Russian military blogs, some of which accused the Kremlin of failing to respond more forcefully to the U.S. action. Many criticized the military for failing to quickly dispatch warships to escort the tankers.
Some have proposed deploying teams of military contractors aboard the Shadow Fleet to prevent such seizures in the future.
Alexander Coates, a military reporter for Komsomolskaya Pravda, believes that the Kremlin’s failure to respond forcefully to the seizure of the oil tanker may encourage the United States and other Western countries to seize more ships without fear.
“Confronted with a bully who thinks he is omnipotent, we must slap him in the face,” Coates wrote.
a contrary view
Fried said Russia has little credibility in its complaints about international law given its invasion of Ukraine. He noted that Russia’s ownership of the ship is also fragile because the ship only received a provisional license to fly its flag late last month.
“If you talk about it legally, it’s a complex issue. If you talk about it strategically, the Russians have grossly overextended themselves and are vulnerable,” said Fried, now at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank. “They insist on fighting a war in Ukraine that they are not winning…their economy is being damaged.”
He said that while Moscow might respond to the seizure of the tanker by conspiring to attack U.S. interests, Putin might not want to risk a confrontation with Trump.
“When Putin flatters Trump, his relationship with Trump goes a step further,” Fried said.
As tensions grew over the seizure of the ship, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on Wednesday that Trump had “approved” a Russia sanctions bill aimed at economically cripple Moscow that has been in the works for months.
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Associated Press writer David Klepper in Washington contributed to this report.
