French sea police have seized a ship in the Channel that authorities suspect belongs to a Russian company in one of the first visible displays of the West enforcing sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
The cargo vessel transporting cars, which was headed for St Petersburg, is “strongly suspected of being linked to Russian interests targeted by the sanctions”, said Capt Veronique Magnin, of the French Maritime Prefecture.
The ship was diverted to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France between 3am and 4am local time, Magnin said, adding that checks were being carried out by customs officials and that the ship’s crew was “being cooperative”.
The US Treasury Department has issued blocking sanctions against the vessel saying it was owned by a subsidiary of Russian lender Promsvyazbank, one of the Russian entities hit by US sanctions.
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