(Photo: Marinetraffic.com)The United States seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker that was being shadowed by a Russian submarine on Wednesday, after a two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic as part of a US blockade of Venezuelan oil exports, two US officials told Reuters. “The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in FULL EFFECT — anywhere in the world,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in reply to that post. The officials said Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity of the operation, including a Russian submarine. The US Coast Guard first attempted to intercept the vessel last month, but it refused to be boarded. $2-billion oil ‘deal’Top Venezuelan officials have called Maduro’s capture a kidnapping and have accused the US of trying to steal the country’s vast oil reserves, estimated to be the largest in the world.
