• sodium_nitride [she/her, any]@hexbear.net
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    10 days ago

    “U.S. naval forces boarded the vessel in international waters outside the territorial waters of any state, and contact with the vessel was lost,” the statement read. The ministry added, “No state has the right to use force against vessels duly registered in the jurisdictions of other states.”

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked at a press briefing on Wednesday if the tanker seizure risked a larger conflict with Russia. She said the tanker was a “Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel” and “deemed stateless.”

    “This was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that has transported sanctioned oil. The vessel was deemed stateless after flying a false flag and it had a judicial seizure order. And that’s why the crew will be subject to prosecution,” she told reporters.

    So by this logic, the US gov can just declare any oil tanker as stateless, even if another state says it belongs to them. What is Russia even going to do as retaliation here? Seize US oil tankers? It seems like the only logical way to stop US piracy.

      • Sammmy [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        2 days ago

        I think The Russia Federation underestimated much much life and money NATO was willing to waste dragging out the war in Ukraine. US figures did openly state the war is about weakening Russia, and the USA barely cares about its own people, let alone anyone in Eurasia. Maybe Russia also underestimated how weak, corrupt and sycophantic Europe leaders had become? Willing to kneecap their own economies for the US oligarchs and back a US/NATO provoked proxy war on Russia’s border for US hegemony.

    • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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      10 days ago

      The argument here under the “rule based order/international law” (lol) would be that you can’t just change to a Russian flag mid voyage after evading seizure, so that the “stateless” classification still applies, as it did during the initial seizure attempt.