The ‘Baltic Leader’ in the English Channel has been ‘escorted’ to Boulogne. The ship is suspected of belonging to a firm targeted by EU sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine
The French navy intercepted the Russian cargo ship in the English Channel that was bound for St Petersburg. French officials told the BBC broadcaster that the ship was intercepted according to new EU sanctions imposed on Russian entities after Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine.
The ship, named “Baltic Leader”, was stopped in Honfleur, in the Normandy region of northern France. The vessel transporting cars was scheduled to reach St Petersburg on 3 March, according to a cargo ship tracking website, after having set sail from Rouen, in Normandy.
Sanctions have been imposed on Kremlin officials including Vladimir Putin and Sergei Lavrov
The customs officials’ investigation into whether the ship is linked to a sanctioned company could take up to 48 hours. The Russian embassy in Paris has requested that the French authorities explain why the ship was seized.
Other sanctions have been imposed by the EU, the UK, Canada, and the US on a number of Russian entities and individuals linked to the Kremlin, too. The sanctioned individuals include Russian president Mr. Putin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has dismissed the new sanctions by saying that “neither Putin nor Lavrov have accounts in Britain or anywhere abroad”.
EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said: “I am not in the secrets of Mr Lavrov and Mr Putin’s wealth and it is not my duty. There are people who will take care of that.
French sea police say the seized ship in the Channel is in accordance with the sanction on Russia as one of the first visible displays of the West enforcing sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. We “strongly suspected the ship being linked to Russian interests targeted by the sanctions”, said Capt Veronique Magnin, of the French Maritime Prefecture.
On the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France between 3am and 4am local time, Magnin said, adding that checks were being carried out by customs officials and that the ship’s crew was “being cooperative”.
The US Treasury Department has issued blocking sanctions against the vessel saying it was owned by a subsidiary of Russian lender Promsvyazbank, one of the Russian entities hit by US sanctions.
The bank’s CEO, Pyotr Fradkov, is the son of Mikhail Fradkov, a former head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, who also served as prime minister under Vladimir Putin. Pyotr Fradkov was himself included in the latest round of US sanctions.
Promsvyazbank, in a comment sent to Reuters, said its subsidiary no longer owns the Baltic Leader, and that it was bought by a different entity before the sanctions were imposed.
The Russian embassy in France is seeking an explanation from authorities over the seizure, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted the embassy as saying. The embassy also said the ship’s crew had been allowed to come ashore and move freely about the port.
The United States, European Union, and other Western states this week imposed extensive new financial and trade sanctions on Russia after it sent military forces into neighboring Ukraine.
The US Treasury said Promsvyazbank was put under sanctions “for operating or having operated in the defense and related materiel and financial services sectors of the Russian Federation economy.” It was also targeted by EU sanctions.
