Germany seizes tanker belonging to Russian 'shadow fleet', Spiegel reports

By Rachel More and Friederike Heine

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany seized a decrepit tanker found adrift off its northern coast in January that is believed to be part of a shadow fleet used by Russia to circumvent oil sanctions, Spiegel news magazine reported on Friday, citing security sources.

The Panama-flagged ship, called Eventin, was secured by German maritime authorities after being found off the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, prompting Berlin to sharply rebuke Moscow. The tanker had been heading from Russia to Egypt.

Spiegel reported that a confiscation order has been issued for the tanker, meaning the vessel and its cargo of around 100,000 metric tons of oil, worth some 40 million euros ($43.33 million), now become German property.

The German finance ministry, which oversees the customs authorities, declined to comment in detail on the matter given the current security situation, a spokesperson said in Berlin, alluding to high Russian-Western tensions over the war in Ukraine. "Customs measures are currently under way."

The local customs authority said in a statement that the measures had not yet been made legally binding, without commenting further on the case.

Moscow has no information about the ship and no knowledge about its owner or reasons for its seizure, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, responding to a Reuters query.

Eventin was included in the European Union's 16th package of sanctions targeting Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The package aimed to put extra pressure on Russia's "shadow fleet" - vessels used by Russia to move oil, arms and grains around in violation of sanctions. The vessels are not regulated or insured by conventional Western providers.

Germany continues to work with its partners on closing this loophole, which Russia uses to finance its war in Ukraine, a spokesperson for the German foreign office said.

($1 = 0.9231 euros)

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Antonov in Moscow and Christian Kraemer in Berlin;editing by Frances Kerry and Mark Heinrich)

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