France on Feb. 17 released a tanker called Grinch, suspected of being part of Russia's sanctions-busting "shadow fleet," after its owner paid a multi-million-euro fine, a minister said.
French forces and their allies boarded the oil tanker last month between Spain and Morocco after it started its journey in Russia. It was escorted to a port near the southern city of Marseille.
Ship-tracking websites MarineTraffic and VesselFinder said the vessel had been flying a Comoros flag.
The Grinch is thought to be part of a fleet of mostly old tankers used to transport Russian oil in violation of a crude price cap imposed by Western countries and the G7 over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Vessels in that "shadow fleet" frequently change the flags they fly, in a practice known as "flag-hopping," and sometimes sail under invalid flags in an attempt to escape detection and tracking.
"The tanker Grinch is leaving French waters after paying several million euros and enduring a costly three-week immobilization," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X.
"Evading European sanctions comes at a price. Russia will no longer be able to bankroll its war with impunity through a shadow fleet off our shores," Barrot said.
The public prosecutor's office and regional authorities said that, "as part of a guilty plea procedure, the company that owns the vessel was sentenced by the Marseille judicial court to a financial penalty."
Grinch is under U.K. sanctions, while another named Carl with the same registration number is sanctioned by the U.S. and European Union.
The boarding in January was the second of its kind in recent months.
France in September detained a Russian-linked ship called the Boracay, a vessel claiming to be flagged in Benin, a move Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned as "piracy."
The European Union lists 598 vessels suspected of being part of the "shadow fleet" that are banned from European ports and maritime services.
