History of the Present — The Intellectualist Premium Series
Russia says it has identified British commercial vessels operating around the South Kuril Islands, studied their routes, cargoes and ownership, and has forces capable of inspecting and detaining vessels serving countries Moscow officially designates as “unfriendly” — an unusually specific threat as European governments intensify action against tankers they say Russia uses to evade sanctions.
The four southernmost islands in the chain are controlled by Russia and claimed by Japan. Moscow has bolstered its military presence on the Kurils over the years, while the territorial dispute has prevented the countries from concluding a formal postwar peace treaty.
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia would retaliate “in kind” if Western countries seized Russian commercial vessels, calling such interdictions piracy and saying Moscow could respond far from the waters where its own ships had been stopped, including in the Pacific, according to The Associated Press.
There is no evidence in publicly available reporting that Russia has begun a generalized campaign of capturing British merchant ships. But the confrontation has already moved beyond blacklists, financial restrictions and port access on the Western side: British forces have physically boarded a tanker at sea. Moscow is now threatening reciprocal action, raising the possibility that Russian and Western forces could eventually come into direct contact over civilian shipping.
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