Looks like the Russians just bought a rustbucket black-market tanker for their merchant marine service. Unfortunately for Moscow, it doesn't carry any oil – not to use, and not to sell. But at least this will likely deny them the humiliation of having the US Navy seize it instead.
The Bella 1 first showed up on the radar screen, literally and figuratively, shortly before Christmas. It had entered the Caribbean at a poorly chosen time, just when Donald Trump had escalated actions against vessels participating in sanctioned oil trade from Venezuela. The ship managed to skedaddle without loading any cargo, evading the US Coast Guard and escaping to open sea. With the US Navy chasing the ship, the crew reflagged the Bella 1 as a Russian ship in an attempt to keep it from being boarded.
The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Russians have decided to escalate the situation:
Russia has sent a submarine and other naval assets to escort an empty, rusting oil tanker that has become a new flashpoint in U.S.-Russia relations, according to a U.S. official. ...
The vessel’s crew repelled an effort by the U.S. to board the vessel in December and steamed into the Atlantic. As the Coast Guard followed it, the crew sloppily painted a Russian flag on its side, changed its name to the Marinera and switched its registration to Russia.
Russia has been concerned by U.S. seizures of tankers that ferry its illicit oil around the world and power its economy, and it has made the unusual move of allowing the tanker to register in Russia without an inspection or other formalities, experts say.
Russia has asked the U.S. to stop pursuing the vessel, according to three other U.S. officials. On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was monitoring “with concern” the situation surrounding the tanker, according to state news agency RIA.
The Bella 1/Marinera has now transited to the North Atlantic in an attempt to avoid seizure by the US Navy. Russia claims that the ship is now transiting to Murmansk, which is a very interesting destination for an empty and somewhat decrepit oil tanker. Murmansk is known more as the Russian Navy's most strategic operating base, but the port also handles oil, mainly from Russia's Arctic exploration and drilling.
As World Ports noted in October, their Murmansk oil refineries are largely disconnected from their national infrastructure, an issue since the Ukrainians have been successfully damaging their main refineries in the West. Even if the Bella 1 had oil, it may not have helped much:
Russia’s crude-export outlets in the Arctic and Pacific oceans are largely unsuitable for diverting crude from the damaged European refineries.
- Kozmino (Pacific): This major Pacific port can physically handle over 1 million barrels a day and is served by the ESPO pipeline. However, it is already operating close to capacity, and its operations are vulnerable to disruption from winter storms and freezing temperatures.
- Disconnected Ports: Other key Pacific ports (De Kastri and Prigorodnoye) are directly tied to the Sakhalin oil projects and cannot accept crude from other sources. Similarly, the Murmansk oil terminal in the Arctic is disconnected from Russia’s main pipeline system, with its export rates linked only to the production from the northern fields it serves.
Russia won't get much use from the Bella 1 in Murmansk. It's basically a safe harbor to keep the ship out of Trump's hands. It may end up rusting for a long while in the Arctic base. If it moves again, it will require a Russian naval escort anywhere it goes.
Will Trump keep pursuing the Bella 1 and risk a confrontation with the Russian Navy? Once again, the question applies about whether the juice is worth the squeeze. The answer came shortly after this post got scheduled to run, and it surprised me:
A U.S. official says U.S. forces have boarded a Venezuela-linked sanctioned oil tanker in North Atlantic after pursuing it for weeks. The official spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
The U.S. had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a U.S. blockade around Venezuela.
The ship was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 for allegedly smuggling cargo for a company linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The U.S. Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean in December as it headed for Venezuela, which the Trump administration has placed under naval blockade. The ship refused boarding and headed across the Atlantic.
So the answer actually was: Too late!
Trump clearly thought the juice was worth the squeeze. That juice may include tweaking Vladimir Putin and reminding him that we have military options in these conflicts, too ... and ours are vastly superior. That may have been Trump's message in Iran last summer and in Caracas this past weekend. If so, message received, one presumes.
Otherwise, though, the value is arguable. The point of seizing the ship is to prevent black-market trade that benefits Russia, Iran, China, and Venezuela. That mission would have been accomplished by chasing the Bella 1 into Murmansk. Forcing Russia to waste its naval resources and to expose one of its attack subs, just to rescue an empty rustbucket, is a bonus. Furthermore, those resources can't protect the dozens of other ships in the black-market merchant marine that the US will target in place of the Bella 1.
In the meantime, we can add another rustbucket to our merchant marine, and take some capacity out of the black-market shipping ring.
Update: Correction – make that two more rustbuckets. The US seized the MT Sophia as it approached the Caribbean this morning as well:
In a pre-dawn action this morning, the Department of War, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, apprehended a stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker without incident.
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) January 7, 2026
The interdicted vessel, M/T Sophia, was operating in international waters and… pic.twitter.com/JQm9gHprPk
The U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted an additional oil tanker in the Caribbean, identified as the 'M Sophia'. pic.twitter.com/VlpyC3GdV5
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 7, 2026
How long will these black marketeers test the US military? At some point, they're going to run out of money – either theirs or money from Tehran and Moscow.
Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.
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