Moscow says it knows where Western ships sail as Putin threatens to seize vessels

Aug 13, 2026 12:59 PM - 1 hour ago 1

Russia's President Vladimir Putin,.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls imaginable European seizures of Russian vessels "piracy and plunder." Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/ AFP/Getty Images

Moscow says it knows wherever Western commercialized ships are sailing, arsenic President Vladimir Putin threatens retaliation if Europe starts seizing Russian vessels.

The informing comes arsenic European countries measurement up efforts to disrupt Russia's maritime lipid trade and its alleged protector fleet, portion of a broader sanctions run aimed astatine squeezing Moscow complete its war successful Ukraine. In July, the European Union changed its sanctions rules to let nationalist authorities to waste Russian lipid cargoes they person seized and confiscated.

On Wednesday, Putin described specified seizures arsenic "piracy and plunder," according to an official transcript from the Kremlin.

"If this happens, we will person to reciprocate — not needfully successful the waters wherever they scheme to ambush our ain ships but anyplace we see basal aliases reasonable, including successful the Pacific Fleet's area of responsibility," he said.

Pacific Fleet Commander Viktor Liina told Putin that Russia had conducted a "detailed analysis" of maritime postulation successful the Asia-Pacific.

"We cognize the routes, what they are carrying, and whose ships they are," Liina said.

The threats travel arsenic European authorities measurement up action astatine sea.

In June, British forces boarded "Smyrtos," a sanctioned tanker the UK says belongs to Russia's protector fleet. The alloy was subsequently held disconnected England's southbound coast.

An EU naval ngo has besides boarded sanctioned tankers. On August 2, Italian forces operating nether the EU's Operation Irini boarded "Toa Payoh," a sanctioned shadow-fleet tanker, successful world waters to verify its nationality. It was the mission's 2nd specified cognition successful little than 2 weeks.

Oil and gas stay captious sources of gross for Moscow, and Western governments person sought to compression those revenues done sanctions targeting Russia's power waste and acquisition and the ships utilized to carrier its oil.

Russia's economy, meanwhile, is showing signs of strain. GDP grew 1.3% successful the 2nd 4th from a twelvemonth earlier, according to Russia's Federal Statistics Service, reversing a 0.2% year-over-year diminution successful the first quarter.

Growth has slowed sharply from caller years, while borrowing costs stay high. The Bank of Russia's cardinal liking complaint stood astatine 14% successful July.

Ukraine has besides intensified attacks connected Russia's power infrastructure, striking refineries and different lipid accommodation successful an effort to disrupt a awesome root of gross for Moscow.

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Huileng Tan

Huileng Tan is simply a elder newsman based successful Singapore, covering markets, the world economy, commodities, and investing. Her reporting focuses connected really shifts successful money, demographics, technology, and policy are reshaping businesses, wealth, and mundane life astir the world.Since joining Business Insider successful 2021, she has covered everything from commodity booms and investor trends to China's economy, the AI trade, and the forces driving global markets.Before joining Business Insider, she reported for CNBC, Dow Jones, ICIS, and The Wall Street Journal.In 2018 and 2019, she won the Singapore Exchange Orb Awards for Story of the Year – Derivatives for her reporting connected the world commodities and derivatives markets.Reach her astatine [email protected].

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