Russia says US seizure of oil tanker illegal; lawmaker calls it piracy

MOSCOW - Russia said on Jan 7 that the

US seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker

in the Atlantic was a violation of maritime law, and a senior lawmaker described it as “outright piracy”.

Russia’s Transport Ministry said contact with the vessel, the Marinera, had been lost after US naval forces boarded it near Iceland as part of efforts to block oil exports from Venezuela.

“In accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation applies in the high seas, and no state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states,” the ministry said in a statement.

Russia is demanding that US ensure humane and decent treatment of the Russian crew members and their swift return home, state news agency TASS quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying.

The Marinera, originally known as the Bella-1, had previously slipped through a US maritime blockade of sanctioned tankers in the Caribbean.

The blockade was part of a US pressure campaign against Venezuela that culminated when President Donald Trump sent in US special forces on Jan 3 to

capture

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro

and bring him to New York to face drug trafficking charges, which he has denied.

“After a ‘law enforcement operation’ that killed several dozen people in Venezuela, the US has engaged in outright piracy on the high seas,” lawmaker Andrei Klishas from the ruling United Russia party posted on Telegram.

Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the operation on Jan 7 was carried out by the Coast Guard and US military.

They said Russian military vessels, including a submarine, were in the general vicinity. There were no indications of any confrontation between US and Russian military forces.

Relations between Moscow and Washington plunged to their worst state since the Cold War after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, though they have become more cordial since Mr Trump began his second term in 2025 and started engaging with Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek an end to the conflict.

Military incidents between the nuclear-armed powers are rare. In March 2023, a US military surveillance drone crashed into the Black Sea after being intercepted by Russian fighter jets, prompting Washington to protest and warn of the risk of an escalation.

Venezuelan leader Maduro was the second close ally of Russia to be ousted in just over a year, following the toppling of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

Russia has said it backs Ms Delcy Rodriguez, sworn in on Jan 5 as interim president, and will continue to support Venezuela in the face of what Moscow has called “blatant neocolonial threats and foreign armed aggression”.

With Russians still in the midst of an extended New Year holiday period, Mr Putin has yet to comment publicly on the US action to remove Maduro. REUTERS