Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that his country would “respond in kind” to the seizure of its merchant vessels by EU countries, defining such plans as “nothing more than piracy and robbery.”
“If this begins to be implemented in practice, we will be forced to respond in kind,” Putin said while participating in the final stages of exercises by Russia’s Pacific Fleet in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the country’s Far Eastern Sakhalin region.
Putin said Russia has seen authorities in some EU countries attempt to restrict the movement of its merchant vessels “in violation of international maritime law.” He said these countries had even considered seizing the vessels and selling their property, which he described as property “they stole from us.”
“This, of course, is nothing less than piracy and robbery,” Putin went on to say, adding that Russia’s response would not necessarily occur in the waters where the seizures take place, but “wherever we deem necessary and appropriate, anywhere,” including in the Pacific.
The warning comes as European countries intensify efforts against Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”, vessels accused of helping Moscow circumvent sanctions on its energy exports imposed over the Ukraine war.
EU states and Britain have sanctioned hundreds of ships, while European authorities have increasingly moved towards boarding, detaining or potentially seizing suspected vessels.
Earlier this month, an EU naval mission boarded a Russia-linked tanker in the Mediterranean, highlighting growing maritime enforcement that Moscow has condemned as unlawful.
