A vessel linked by President Macron to drone sightings in Europe has apparently been released<\/p>\n
An oil tanker detained by the French Navy while sailing from Russia in what President Vladimir Putin denounced as an \u201cact of piracy\u201d has resumed its journey, according to maritime tracking data.
\nAccording to MarineTraffic, the Benin-flagged \u2018Boracay\u2019 is now crossing the Bay of Biscay on its way to the Suez Canal after apparently being released on Thursday evening. The vessel is blacklisted by the EU for allegedly belonging to the so-called \u201cRussian shadow fleet,\u201d a group of tankers Western governments claim Moscow uses to skirt their attempts to throttle its crude exports, including through a price cap.
\nPutin denounced the interception of the vessel during his remarks at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday. He argued that France had neither jurisdiction nor justification to seize the ship and dismissed claims of Russian ownership as dubious.
\nPutin further suggested that President Emmanuel Macron was exploiting anti-Russian rhetoric to distract from domestic issues. The French leader is seeking \u201cto provoke us into some actions and then tell the French: \u2018Rally around me, I\u2019ll lead you to victory\u2019. Like Napoleon,\u201d Putin explained.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Putin accuses France of piracy<\/p>\n
Macron linked the tanker to sightings of mystery drones over Denmark, noting that its voyage from the Russian port of Primorsk took it past the Nordic country. Putin rejected the allegation, asserting that the vessel could not be transporting military cargo.
\nBrightly lit drones have been reported recently over sensitive sites in Denmark, Germany, and Norway. This week, EU leaders met in Copenhagen to discuss the so-called \u201cdrone wall\u201d initiative, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen endorsed in her State of the Union speech last month.
\nNews reports indicate the proposal quickly ran into skepticism over feasibility and funding \u2013 or \u201ccrashed into EU reality,\u201d as Politico put it.
\nMoscow has accused Brussels of resorting to fearmongering to justify militarization and to sustain aid for Ukraine at the expense of member states\u2019 domestic priorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A vessel linked by President Macron to drone sightings in Europe has apparently been released An oil tanker detained by the French Navy while sailing from Russia in what President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t