Russia demands release of tanker captain detained by France

Key points

• Russia ​is demanding that France release the captain of a tanker detained in France on what ​it says are false ⁠charges, the Russian embassy in Paris said on Wednesday (June 3, 2026).
• France’s Navy said on Monday (June 1, 2026) it had intercepted a sanctioned tanker, the Tagor, linked to the Russian oil trade in the Atlantic Ocean.
• Paris ordered it ⁠to head to the French ⁠mainland, in a move Moscow said was illegal and amounted to “international piracy.” The Russian Embassy said that French ​authorities had informed Moscow that the vessel’s captain, a Russian national, had been detained on what it described as “trumped-up” charges.
• “The Embassy has once again contacted the French ​Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanding immediate consular access to the Russian citizen ⁠and his prompt release,” the embassy said in a statement.
• Russia has relied on old vessels, known in the West as the “shadow fleet”,...