Crackdown on Shadow Fleet Escalates With Seizure of Ship Carrying Russian Oil

Western nations including the U.S. have imposed sanctions on thousands of entities tied to shadow-fleet tankers. However, these sanctions have so far done little to stop the flow of sanctioned crude from Russia, Iran and Venezuela, and Western militaries have done little, until recently, to physically stop the ships. “It’s extremely significant that France did it,” said Charlie Brown, senior adviser with United Against a Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group that tracks the shadow fleet. “It shows that a European country is standing up to Russia, and they’re doing it in the Mediterranean.”