{"id":4641,"date":"2026-03-03T17:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/4641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:44:09","slug":"belgium-cracks-down-on-russian-shadow-fleet-with-seizure-of-oil-tanker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/4641\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium Cracks Down on Russian &#8216;Shadow Fleet&#8217; with Seizure of Oil Tanker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Belgium&#8217;s government has placed a significant legal hold on the Russian oil tanker Ethera, mandating a 10 million euro bail after its seizure on Sunday. The North Sea ministry revealed that the tanker was part of a Russian shadow fleet operating with false identification and documentation.<\/p>\n<p>Upon inspection, authorities identified 45 violations, mainly related to counterfeit certificates linked to the ship&#8217;s misleading Guinean flag. The Ethera&#8217;s release is contingent upon payment of the imposed sum and a follow-up inspection to ensure all regulations are met, including securing a legitimate flag state, proper certification, and resolving technical deficiencies.<\/p>\n<p>Defence Minister Theo Francken emphasized the government&#8217;s commitment to enforcing EU sanctions, protecting the North Sea, and restricting Russia&#8217;s financial avenues for the war in Ukraine. The rise of the &#8216;shadow fleet&#8217; following sanctions aimed at curbing Russian oil exports presents environmental risks, with their opaque ownership and lack of regulation posing threats to marine ecosystems.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>(With inputs from agencies.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Belgium&#8217;s government has placed a significant legal hold on the Russian oil tanker Ethera, mandating a 10&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,3252,3250,3536,3267,3236,3249,3237,430],"class_list":{"0":"post-4641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-environmental-risks","10":"tag-ethera","11":"tag-eu-sanctions","12":"tag-north-sea","13":"tag-oil-tanker","14":"tag-russian","15":"tag-shadow-fleet","16":"tag-theo-francken"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116166489795692172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}