Russian Embassy News

The U.S.-led coalition imposing a price cap on seaborne Russian oil announced changes on Wednesday to its compliance regime the Treasury Department said will make it harder for Russian exporters to bypass the cap.The Treasury also imposed fresh sanctions on a ship manager owned by the Russian government and three oil traders involved in Russian oil trade.The Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries last year imposed a price cap of $60 per barrel on Russian oil shipments in…

A Chinese research ship and five escort vessels were in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on Friday, close to gas blocks operated by Russian firms in the South China Sea, a day after Vietnam urged the ships to leave.The Chinese vessel Xiang Yang Hong 10 began operating in Vietnam's EEZ on May 7, representing the most significant incursion since 2019, according to Ray Powell, who leads Stanford University's Project Myoushu on the South China Sea.He said China's conduct and Vietnam's reaction were a "worrying escalation."China claims most of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, including areas that are within Vietnam's EEZ. The 2019 standoff lasted for more than three months and largely targeted a block then operated by Russian state oil firm Rosneft ROSN.MM.

The world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, sailed into Oslo on Wednesday, a first for such a U.S. ship, in a show of NATO force at a time of heightened tension between NATO and Russia over the war in Ukraine.The ship and its crew will be conducting training exercises with the Norwegian armed forces along the country's coast in the coming days, the Norwegian military said."This visit is an important signal of the close bilateral relationship between the U.S.

There is no progress in removing obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer exports caused by the West's "sanction strategy", a senior Russian diplomat in Washington said on Tuesday, ahead of the expiry of a deal safeguarding Ukrainian grain exports.The deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July which allows Ukrainian grain trapped by the conflict to be safely exported from the country's Black Sea ports, is set to expire on May 18.Russia has said that parts of the deal that are meant to allow Moscow to export its own agricultural goods via the Black Sea ports were not being honor

A private yacht with three Russians and two Egyptians on board which had been reported missing in the Red Sea off Yemen turned up in Djibouti on Thursday after what the owner said was an attack by unknown gunmen.The 30 Minutes sent its last signal on Tuesday night off the coast of Jizan, a port in southern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border before appearing to go missing, owner Dmitriy Chuguevskiy had told Reuters,"According to the people on board ... they were going in international waters off Yemen. They were attacked from the Yemen side, shot at ...

A private yacht with three Russians and two Egyptians on board has been reported missing in the Red Sea near the coast of Yemen for several days by its owner and the Russian embassy in Saudi Arabia.It was not immediately clear what had happened to the pleasure yacht named 30 Minutes which its owner said was heading to Djibouti to be sent onwards by ship to Dubai.The ship, which its owner said was registered in Panama, was not fitted with the standard AIS ship tracking system which…

A Syrian ship under U.S. sanctions has docked in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli carrying barley and wheat that the Ukrainian embassy in Beirut told Reuters on Thursday had been plundered by Russia from Ukrainian stores.The Laodicea docked in Tripoli on Wednesday, according to shipping data website MarineTraffic."The ship has traveled from a Crimean port that is closed to international shipping, carrying 5,000 tonnes of barley and 5,000 tonnes of flour that we suspect was taken from Ukrainian stores," the embassy told Reuters."This is the first time a shipment of stolen grains and flour reaches Lebanon," the statement said.Russia has previously denied the allegations that it has stolen Ukrainian grain.

The Russian embassy in India said on Tuesday that it was aware of a Russian cargo ship in detention at the Indian port of Cochin."Russian Embassy in India is aware of the Russian cargo ship detention in the Indian port of Cochin, on board of which a military cargo for the Indian Armed Forces was delivered," Reuters partner ANI quoted the embassy as saying."The Embassy has sent to the Ministry of External Affairs of India an official request for explanation of the circumstances of the incident. We have also asked the Ministry to ensure unconditional observance of the rights of the Russian ship-owners and crew," ANI quoted the embassy as saying(Reuters - Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

A Russian warship early on Friday twice violated Danish territorial waters north of the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm where a democracy festival attended by senior officials and business people was taking place, the Danish Armed Forces said.Denmark called the action an unacceptable provocation. The Russian embassy in Copenhagen said the Danes provided no evidence.The Russian warship entered Danish waters without authorization at 0030 GMT on Friday and again a few hours later, the armed forces said in a statement.

Greece has impounded a Russian oil tanker off the island of Evia, the Greek coastguard said on Tuesday, as part of European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.Earlier this month, the EU banned Russian-flagged vessels from the 27-nation bloc's ports, with some exemptions, as it adopted new sweeping sanctions against Russia for what the Kremlin describes as a "special military operation".The 115,500-deadweight tonnage Russian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, was seized near Karystos on the southern coast of Evia, which lies just off the Greek mainland near Athens.The Russian embassy in Athens…

An Estonian-owned cargo ship sank on Thursday off Ukraine's major Black Sea port of Odessa, hours after a Bangladeshi vessel was hit by a missile or bomb at a port east of Odessa, underlining the growing peril to merchant shipping after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Many shipping firms have suspended journeys to Black Sea ports and other terminals in Ukraine amid soaring recent insurance premiums for such voyages. At least three commercial ships have been hit separately by projectiles since Feb. 24 when Russia's invasion began.Viktor Vyshnov, deputy head of Ukraine’s Maritime Administration, said six crew members from the Marshall Islands-flagged Helt were picked up by Ukraine's rescue service and taken to a hospital in nearby Chernomorsk after floating in cold water for many hours…

France on Saturday seized a car cargo ship in the English Channel that Washington says was linked to the son of a former Russian spy chief, in one of the first visible displays of the West enforcing sanctions on Moscow over its Ukraine invasion.The "Baltic Leader" was headed to St. Petersburg but was diverted to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. (0200-0300 GMT), Captain Veronique Magnin of the French Maritime Prefecture told Reuters.The vessel was "strongly suspected of being linked to Russian interests targeted by the sanctions," she said.The United States Treasury Department has issued blocking sanctions against the vessel because…

Norway will block Rolls-Royce from selling a Norwegian maritime engine maker to a Russian company on national security grounds, its justice minister told parliament on Tuesday.Based on Norway’s west coast, and owned by Britain’s Rolls-Royce for more than 20 years, Bergen Engines supplies NATO member Norway’s navy as well as the global shipping industry.The blocking of the sale is a blow for Rolls-Royce, which is aiming to raise 2 billion pounds ($2.76 billion) from disposals by…

Norway has suspended the sale of a Norwegian engine maker owned by Rolls-Royce Holdings to a Russian-controlled company while it assesses the security implications for the country’s navy and the civilian sector, the government said on Tuesday.Norway’s NSM security agency is assessing the 150 million-euro ($178 million) sale announced on Feb. 4 of Bergen Engines to a company controlled by Russia’s TMH Group, NSM and the justice ministry said.Britain’s Rolls-Royce said it was selling…

Armed pirates have reportedly kidnapped 13 seafarers from a Liberian-flagged product tanker in the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa, continuing a rise in attacks on vessels in the world's most dangerous piracy hot spot.The Curcacao Trader was approached by eight armed individuals aboard a single speedboat and boarded 232 nautical miles southwest of Lagos, Friday. Among those abducted are seven Russian nationals, according to the Russian embassy in Nigeria. The other five crew members taken from the ship are believed to be Ukranian.The 116.5-meter vessel had been sailing south after departing the port of Lomé, Togo when her speed dropped to 3 knots at the indicated time of attack, according to maritime security intelligence group Dryad Global.

Pirates attacked a Portugal-flagged ship and kidnapped its Bulgarian captain and seven sailors off the coast of Benin, Bulgaria's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.A ministry statement said the pirates who boarded the Tommi Ritscher container ship at the port of Cotonou in the Gulf of Guinea on Sunday had released 11 other members of the crew.It said it has requested more details from Benin's foreign ministry but no information had been received so far.A representative of the Russian Embassy in Benin and Togo was quoted as saying by TASS news agency that three Russian citizens were among the hostages seized.This is the latest incident of piracy off the coast of Benin.

Ukraine has released the crew of a Russian tanker detained in the port of Izmail, but the vessel is still being held by Ukrainian authorities, RIA news agency cited the Russian embassy in Ukraine as saying.Ukraine said earlier on Thursday it had detained a Russian tanker for its alleged involvement in the seizure of three Ukrainian vessels by Russia in November, and Moscow threatened consequences if Russian citizens were "taken hostage". (Reuters, Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh and Anastasia Teterevleva; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alison Williams)

A tanker vessel with 19 crew members on board, most of them Georgians, has gone missing in pirate-plagued waters off Gabon in West Africa and no word has been heard from it for a week, the ship's managers and the crew agency said on Wednesday.Communication was lost with the Panama-registered Pantelena at about 2 a.m. local time on Aug. 14, at which time it was about 17 miles from the port of Libreville, in Gabon, Athens-based Lotus Shipping said in a statement.The head of the Georgian crew agency Ialkani, Anzhela Oganesyan, said two Russian nationals and 17 Georgians were aboard the tanker. She said she had no news so far about the vessel's…

Pirates have kidnapped seven Russians and one Ukrainian after attacking the cargo ship the BBC Caribbean off the coast of Nigeria, the Russian embassy said on its official Twitter account. The embassy has asked Nigerian authorities to assist in locating the abducted people, it said late on Tuesday. The Nigerian navy and police were not immediately available for comment. The general cargo vessel BBC Caribbean is managed by Briese Schiffahrts. "The armed pirates approached (the vessel) in a boat, captured the crew and left on the boat at the direction of the Nigerian shores," said Pavel Fedulov, the director of a Briese Schiffahrts subsidiary in St Petersburg, according to Russian news organisation RBC. No firearms were used during the attack, he was quoted as saying.

Russia has withdrawn a request for a carrier battle group to refuel in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said, after NATO allies criticised Madrid for assisting warships they believe could be used to target civilians in Syria. "The Russian Embassy in Madrid has just informed us that it is withdrawing the request for permission for stopovers for these ships and these stopovers have therefore been cancelled," the ministry said. (Reporting by Sarah White)

A Russian intelligence warship Viktor Leonov CCB-175 docked in Havana on Tuesday, January 20, a day before the start of historic US-Cuba talks aimed at normalizing diplomatic relations, reports AFP. The spy ship arrived at a passenger cruise terminal in full public view for what a Russian embassy official called a “friendly” three-day stay. There was nothing stealthy about the arrival of the ship, which was moored to a pier in Old Havana where cruise ships often dock. But the visit was not officially announced by Cuban authorities. Observers feel that the whole incident looked like Russian President Vladimir Putin sends Cold War-style message to Washington on day that Kremlin announces plans to extend global military presence with new bases.

A Russian spy ship slipped into Havana Bay for an unannounced visit during a period of turmoil in Ukraine and displays of military strength elsewhere in the world. The Viktor Leonov SSV-175, part of the Vishnya class of intelligence ships, quietly entered Cuban waters earlier this week and was docked at a cruise ship terminal on Thursday, its crew casually taking in the view of the old colonial section of the Cuban capital as passers-by gawked. Russian warships have come and gone in Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union…

Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo has written to President Vladimir Putin offering to travel to Moscow as early as possible to meet with the Russian President, in an effort to end the continued incarceration of 28 peaceful activists and two freelance journalists. In the letter, delivered today to the Russian embassy in The Hague, Naidoo offers to move his life to Russia and act as a guarantor for the good conduct of the activists if they are released on bail. President Putin had suggested he was open to dialogue with Greenpeace when he spoke at the recent International Arctic Forum conference in the Russian city of Salekhard. Kumi Naidoo's letter has been sent in response to Mr. Putin's reported remarks.