The United States, on Wednesday, seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker with links to Venezuela after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic, and as a Russian submarine and warship were close by, Associated Press reported, citing the US military.
The seizure, which could stoke tensions with Russia, came after the tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, slipped through a US maritime “blockade” of sanctioned tankers and rebuffed US Coast Guard efforts to board it.
News agency AP reported that the US has seized 2 sanctioned oil tankers linked to Venezuela in back-to-back actions in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean.
Two US officials cited in a Reuters report said the operation was carried out by the Coast Guard and the US military.
They added that Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity of the operation, including a Russian submarine. It was unclear how close the vessels were to the operation, which was taking place close to Iceland.
According to Reuters, this appeared to be the first time in recent memory that the US military has attempted to seize a Russian-flagged vessel. The attempt also comes just days after a dead-in-the-night operation by the US Special Forces in Caracas, which resulted in the “capture” of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro last Saturday.
A senior Russian lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party, Andrei Klishas, described the US action as an act of outright piracy, according to the TASS state news agency.
