Overview
- Russia delivered a formal diplomatic request to the State Department on New Year’s Eve asking the U.S. to stop pursuing the tanker Bella 1.
- The vessel has been listed on Russia’s official ship register under a new name, complicating U.S. interdiction plans.
- Public tracking shows the tanker in the North Atlantic after it evaded a December 21 Coast Guard interdiction with a U-turn in the Caribbean.
- It remains unclear whether the U.S. will halt the operation, and the White House, State Department and Russian Embassy did not comment.
- President Donald Trump last month declared a blockade on sanctioned tankers to and from Venezuela, and U.S. forces seized two other vessels in December.