"The seizing of Baltic Leader is one of the first visible displays of the West enforcing sanctions on Moscow over its Ukraine invasion" Let the war games begin boys and girls .. Piracy on the High Seas ! France taking the first bite - an act of war to seizing Russian vessels .. one has to expect Russia to retaliate .. start seizing vessels tit for tat ... ratcheting up the tension ..
I wonder about the legality of this seizure. Is France claiming a right to seize any property owned by a company based in Russia (or by certain companies based in Russia)? Also this seizure epitomizes what the trade sanctions are primarily going to be about - preventing the Russian wealthy from getting luxury goods made in Europe - there were expensive cars onboard that ship headed to St. Petersburg, Russia.
That’s what sanctions are - the property is seized. The U.S. already froze $1T of Russian money in American banks. Russians will see this property back once they stop the hostilities. Edit - scratch that thought. The money should be used as reparations to rebuild Ukraine.
That's not necessarily what "sanctions" are. Sanctions usually just make trade between the two countries illegal. Sometimes money is "frozen", but to be more literally exact, it prevents that money from being transferred out of the country, even though it is still theoretically owned by the country with sanctions on it. Seizing a ship at sea is something entirely on a different level.
