Trump Declares Open Season on Russian Ghost Fleet, Orders Every Shadow Tanker to Be Boarded and Towed to Alaska
President Donald Trump has signed a law imposing new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, targeting the energy sector and, for the first time, the so-called Russian ghost fleet. In an unprecedented escalation, the U.S. Navy has been ordered to physically seize and tow every shadow tanker to Alaskan ports.
President Donald Trump signed a law on Friday evening imposing new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, and by Saturday morning the U.S. Navy had begun boarding and towing every vessel of Russia's so-called ghost fleet to Alaska, where the tankers are now moored hull-to-hull along the entire length of the Aleutian chain.
The operation, named «Arctic Receipt», has so far redirected more than nine hundred shadow tankers, each one escorted by a Coast Guard cutter and a tugboat flying a banner reading «You Are Hereby Parked». In Nome, the harbor has been reclassified as a permanent impound lot, and the town's two diners now serve borscht to Russian crews who arrived expecting Rotterdam and got a parking ticket instead.
«We are not seizing cargo, we are seizing the concept of a voyage», a senior Treasury official said. «Any ship that turns off its transponder will be met by a frigate and a very patient tugboat captain.»
The Kremlin responded by declaring the Bering Strait a Russian lake and ordering its own tugboats to tow Alaska back. The order is still being reviewed by the Russian Navy, which has not yet located Alaska.
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