Putin vows response vs detention of Russian ship

Rennes, France -- President Vladimir Putin on Thursday condemned France’s detention of a Russian-linked ship as “piracy,” vowing a “significant” response to what he called European threats as tension flared.

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The Russian leader’s warning came after the French navy on Saturday detained and boarded an oil tanker that has been blacklisted by the European Union for being part of Russia’s sanction-busting “shadow fleet.”

The ship, the Boracay, has been linked to mysterious drone flights over Denmark last month, including military sites, part of a recent spate of drone sightings and airspace violations in European countries blamed on Russia -- though Moscow denies responsibility.

The airspace incidents are adding to tension between European nations and Moscow, already riding high over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged European countries to do more to thwart Moscow’s efforts to skirt Western sanctions, telling a summit in Denmark that Europe needed to “kill the business model” of using ageing, foreign-flagged tankers to transport Russian oil by detaining such ships.

France’s detention of the Boracay, a vessel claiming to be flagged in Benin, drew a furious response from Putin.

"This is piracy,” he said. “The tanker was seized in neutral waters without any justification,” adding that there was no military cargo onboard.

“We are closely monitoring the rising militarization of Europe,” Putin told a foreign policy forum in the city of Sochi, southern Russia.