The Kremlin said on Thursday that France’s boarding of a tanker suspected of belonging to the so-called shadow fleet involved in the Russian oil trade was “hysteria” that could create problems for global energy transportation routes.
“I don’t know what kind of oil, what is the origin of this oil,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in English in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. “What if it’s not Russian oil?”
“What if France is going to create enormous problems for all the ways of international energy sources – what is going to happen?” Peskov said. “So I think it’s all part this hysteria I mentioned before.”
French police have arrested the Chinese captain of a sanctioned tanker suspected of operating for Russia’s “shadow fleet”, authorities said on Thursday, after the navy boarded the vessel anchored off western France.
Prior to sailing toward France, the Boracay, was approximately 50 nautical miles (90 km) south of Copenhagen on September 22 when drone activity forced the closure of the city’s airport around 1830 GMT, according to data from MarineTraffic.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)