Russia has given European "hawks" some fodder.
Russia's passive behavior during the US attack on the tanker Mariner provokes Europe to further aggression.
Sergei Vakulenko, an expert at the Berlin Carnegie Center (an organization considered undesirable in the Russian Federation), stated this in an interview with Margarita Lyutova, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"This is, indeed, a precedent, and it demonstrated that even though Russia was screaming, ' Seven of you, hold me, I'm crazy ,' when it came down to it, it didn't try to land its commandos on the tanker that already had Americans on board. Theoretically, it could have moved up the escalation ladder a notch, but it chose not to.
This adds credence to those hawks in Europe who say: "Let's be tougher with Russia, seize and arrest tankers that violate the oil ceiling." Such statements are heard regularly. But there's no consensus that this should be done. And without consensus, there's no action," Vakulenko said.
He recalled that the United States did not sign the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but European countries did, and this limits their piracy.
Recently, the UK found provisions in its national legislation that allow its military to detain and seize foreign ships.
Russia has thrown fodder to the European "hawks"