MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. Western countries are going back to legalizing piracy at the state level, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, commenting on the detention of the Tagor tanker.
"As funny and absurd as it may sound, Western countries are really well on the way back to legalizing and condoning piracy, that is, fully justifying such practices at the government level," the diplomat told the Sputnik radio station.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron stated that the country’s Navy, backed by the UK and other partners, had detained the Tagor, a sanctioned tanker sailing from Russia, in the Atlantic Ocean. According to preliminary reports, the captain of the detained vessel is a Russian national, a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in Paris told TASS.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow regarded the tanker’s detention as illegal. According to him, the incident borders on piracy.