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'Outright Piracy': Russia Decries US Seizure of Oil Tanker as Violation of International Law
(www.commondreams.org)
That's rich coming from Russia.
this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2026
60 points (95.5% liked)
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Still, technically it's right. Since USA are not at war with Russia, this is literally piracy.
Russia can go fuck itself.
Let's see, 2025 Pedolf Diddler claimed to have "solved 8 wars"
Is the childfucker making 2026 the year of starting 8 wars, igniting WWIII, ultimately sending us into nuclear winter by 2027?
That's how you avoid the midterms. Check mate libtards!! /s
Is this the one that changed its name and flag to Russia while underway (very illegal), and got a RU submarine escort?
Yes. Though both name change and registering the ship under Russian flag is legal under international law of law of the sea. And by that law, only the country under which flag ship is registered under have jurisdiction. So only US broken the law here.
Article 92 Status of ships
- Ships shall sail under the flag of one State only and, save in exceptional cases expressly provided for in international treaties or in this Convention, shall be subject to its exclusive jurisdiction on the high seas. ** A ship may not change its flag during a voyage or while in a port of call, save in the case of a real transfer of ownership or change of registry.**
- A ship which sails under the flags of two or more States, using them according to convenience, may not claim any of the nationalities in question with respect to any other State, and may be assimilated to a ship without nationality.
The Marinera was reportedly not carrying any cargo when US forces seized it.
It wasn't in the voyage.
And it was a real change of registry as before that that the ship was stateless.
The aging, rusting tanker, originally called the Bella 1, was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for operating within a “shadow fleet” of tankers transporting illicit Iranian oil.
Last month the US Coast Guard attempted to seize the vessel while it was heading to Venezuela to pick up oil, then operating under the flag of Guyana. But the ship’s crew refused to be boarded and made an abrupt turn into the Atlantic.
The Bella 1’s crew later painted a Russian flag on its side, and it appeared in a Russian shipping register under a new name, the Marinera.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/08/us/russia-oil-tanker-seizure-what-we-know-intl-hnk
Last month the US Coast Guard attempted to seize the vessel while it was heading to Venezuela to pick up oil, then operating under the flag of Guyana.
My bad, I read that US considered it stateless. But in this case it was still illegal action on the US part, since then only Guyana had jurisdiction.
But the ship’s crew refused to be boarded and made an abrupt turn into the Atlantic.
So they cancelled their voyage?
The truth is most likely that the ship is part of the Russian shadow fleet. It may have been pretending to be registered in Guyana, then changed to Russia when they were caught out.
To my mind, the question is "does an enforcement gap exist in maritime law regarding these ships, and should the US be filling that gap?"
<...> they were caught out.
Caught? They weren't doing anything illegal. US has no jurisdiction to enforce their sactions against sovereign countries and ships in the international waters. Just because US has a god complex doesn't mean they are above the law.
The law is the law and US had broken it. Could it be updated? Sure. Should US be able to subvert the law? Fuck no.
Most ships operating from their countries don't even use their own flags. There are even landlocked countries that have registered ships (e.g. Moldova).
https://statbase.org/datasets/air-rail-and-water-transportation/number-of-ships-by-flag-of-registration/
Operating the vessel under a false flag is illegal, making the ship count as stateless and able to be boarded by anyone. The US allegation is that the Guyana flag was a false flag and the transfer of registration to Russia was illegal/null, therefore the ship can be boarded without permission in international waters.
Regardless of this case, there is the larger trend of these "shadow fleets" operating outside of international laws under the direction of their true home countries. They use international waters as a safe zone to avoid enforcement, along with tricks like flag-hopping, deactivating or spoofing their transponders, and moving cargo ship-to-ship in international waters to avoid entering a national territory. These shadow fleets are also implicated in deliberately damaging underwater cables, and in China's case are used for illegal fishing which damages fisheries across the globe.
What I'm saying is that if the country of registry fails to enforce maritime law on the ships under their flag, or if they in fact encourage/direct the vessels to break these laws, then there are gaps in maritime law and enforcement of it. Nowhere did I say that the US is justified in breaking laws to enforce other laws, but I think it's understandable why vigilante justice gains the support that it does.
Well, US lied. It is a legally registered vessel and was using matching flag.
IMO / MMSI: 9230880 / 750350205
Am I reading this correctly? I’m gutted! There truly is no honour among thieves.
How come Russia didn’t say this when the US started using force against Venezuelan and Colombian vessels?