The Kremlin has thanked the U.S. for the release of two Russian crew members from the oil tanker seized in the North Atlantic after a weekslong chase.
Moscow sent a submarine and a destroyer to guard the Bella 1, both of which “left very quickly when we arrived,” Trump said last night in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
“They decided not to mess around with us,” Trump added. The oil tanker had fled the U.S. blockade of Venezuela, changing its name to the Marinera and hoisting a Russian flag.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Munro shadowing the Bella 1 during the maritime interdiction operation. Department of Defense / via AP
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement this morning that Trump “decided to release two Russian citizens from among the crew of the tanker Marinera.”
“We welcome this decision and express our gratitude to the U.S. leadership,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in the statement on Telegram.
Trump evaded a question about whether Putin had called him following the seizure. “I don’t want to say that,” Trump told Hannity last night.
The U.S. seized the Bella 1 in the North Atlantic on Wednesday in an operation that defied Russian warnings after a dramatic chase on the high seas. The ship is suspected to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” fueling its wartime economy in circumvention of international sanctions.