France Fines Russia-Linked Oil Tanker in Shadow Fleet Crackdown

France will release a tanker after hitting it with a multimillion-euro fine for flouting European sanctions on Russian oil, following its seizure in the Mediterranean Sea last month.

The Grinch will leave French waters after “paying several millions of euros and three weeks of costly immobilization at Fos-sur-Mer,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a . He didn’t specify the exact amount of the fine.

The French navy boarded the Grinch, which came from Murmansk in the Russian Arctic, as part of a global crackdown on shadow fleet ships used to export sanctioned crude. Moscow’s war in Ukraine saw a ballooning in the size of that dark fleet 鈥� vessels without standard insurance, often flying under questionable flags, or no flags at all, and with opaque ownership structure.

More than 600 tankers have been sanctioned by a combination of the European Union, the UK and US for their links to Russia. Of those, more than 570 have been blacklisted by the EU since June 2024, more than any other authority.

“Circumventing European sanctions comes at a price,” Barrot wrote. “Russia will no longer be able to finance its war with impunity via a shadow fleet off our coasts.”

The Grinch’s seizure wasn’t the first of a Russia-linked tanker by French authorities. In September, the oil tanker was boarded off France’s Atlantic coast for failing to provide proof of its nationality and flag, as well as refusal to comply with requests from the navy.

Photograph: France will release a tanker after hitting it with a multimillion-euro fine for flouting European sanctions on Russian oil. Photo credit: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images