Piracy in the English Channel
Key Markets report for Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Britain, the Great beacon of Western liberal democracy, human rights and all that good stuff, can’t seem to kick its all-consuming Russophobia. In the early hours of Sunday, 14 June 2026, British commandos boarded the oil tanker MT Smyrtos as it was sailing through the English Channel. Somehow, for some reason, camera crew was a step ahead of them to record a punchy propaganda video of the brave and professional Royal Marines in action.
This was the first such UK-led operation against an evil Russian “shadow fleet” tanker since this initiative was announced. Recall, the decision to target Russian oil tankers was announced in August 2024 at the summit of the “European Political Community” in London and the 44 participating representatives of European countries agreed with the plan.
Noble ends justify crafty means?
When Royal Marines boarded MT Smyrtos, the tanker was sailing through the English Channel, south of the Isle of Wight (near the broader Dover Strait area). It was in international waters and therefore, Britain had no legal right to board it or seize it. The ostensible reason for targeting the “shadow fleet” is because it helps Russia evade sanctions and sell its oil above the G7 price cap. That extra revenue provides Russia the funding needed to conduct its war against free and democratic Ukraine.
Even if we accept that this noble end justifies Britain’s forceful means, the act was still illegal: the UK can only enforce sanctions within its own jurisdiction, and a foreign vessel sailing through international waters does not fall under UK jurisdiction. To fix that problem, the UK seized MT Smyrtos and brought it into Britain’s territorial waters. Now it was under British jurisdiction, fair and square! Clever. Very clever, in fact, but this kind of cleverness is just the stuff that earned Britain the nickname, Perfidious Albion in the eyes of much of the world. Unfortunately, things only get worse from here…
Another fig-leaf legal cover claimed by British authorities is that, under Article 110 of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, they were in their right to intervene because MT Smyrtos was stateless at the time when it was passing through the English Channel. How it ended up stateless was yet another act of clever perfidy.
When the tanker completed loading at Russia’s Ust-Luga terminal on 4 June, it was duly registered under Cameroonian registry and it sailed under the flag of Cameroon. However, while it was sailing from Russia toward British channel, Cameroon suddenly deregistered the ship. From the former British ambassador Craig Murray:
While the ship was on its voyage, on 10 June Cameroon withdrew its registration. It did so because the EU and UK threatened to halt development aid to Cameroon unless they removed Russian vessels from their shipping register. So the UK blackmailed Cameroon into deregistering the ship. Then, before the ship could reach a friendly port, the UK boarded it because it had been deregistered. Now doubtless there are chortling people in the UK security and military industries self-congratulating themselves over how clever they are.
So, so clever indeed. However, even if a sailing vessel is stateless, Article 110 only allows for an inspection of the ship, not a seizuer. Unless it is found to be engaged in an illegal activity, it cannot legally be seized. This is why the clever people dragged it into their own territorial waters and only then claimed jurisdiction over it.
Cleverness is the worst kind of stupidity
It seems odd that a certain class of grown up people regard devious craftiness as though it’s a special kind of cleverness that makes them superior to the contemptible victims of their scheming. At the same time, they seem oblivious to the damage they’re inflicting on their country’s reputation in the world, as well as to the risks to which they expose the society at large. They cleverly labelled MT Smyrtos as a Russian vessel, part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers as if that justified their own act of piracy.
However, beyond the most casual consumers of the mainstream narratives, nobody is fooled or amused. MT Smytros is simply an oil tanker built in 2009 for the legitimate, legal business of transporting oil. It is not Russian either: it is owned and operated by a Hong Kong-based shipowner Zhao Yao Shipping Ltd. Its cargo was bound for India and its master is an Indian national, Anand Madhukar who could now be prosecuted and imprisoned in the UK for breaking the anti-Russia sanctions.
For anyone who understands international oil trading, oil tanker operations or has even a rudimentary appreciation of maritime law, Britain’s seizure of MT Smytros is simply a brazen act of piracy. Its obvious intention is to antagonize Russia and provoke it into further escalation of hostilities. But the effect of such conduct in the eyes of the world are to mark out Great Britain as an aggressive, warmongering rogue state.
Clever scheming may help the pirates contrive a dubious legal cover for their actions, but this might only impress gullible domestic audiences. In his 1924 novel “The Magic Mountain,” Thomas Mann wrote that, “There are so many different kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.” It’s not hard to see how it could be the worst: in the past, the Perfidious Albion’s devious craftiness brought us World War I and World War II. It is becoming glaringly obvious that the ultimate objective of the present scheming is orchestrating World War III, as Britain’s king Charles III publicly called for.
Priming the anti-Russian hysteria
Just in case their maritime provocation falls flat, Britain’s ruling establishment accused Russia for the series of arson attacks against Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s properties. The dastardly Russians arranged for two Ukrainian and one Romanian young men to set Sir Keir’s houses and cars on fire. The bizarre case only just concluded in London with the jury’s verdicts, and before the full legal process could wrap up this week, the BBC broke the spectacular revelation that the Russians orchestrated the arson attacks.
Well, who else could it be? Tory MP and Chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugthatend, launched into a hysterical X-thread demonizing Russia (along with China and Iran), gloating about the Sunday’s seizure of the “Russian” tanker and calling for more aggressive confrontation against Russia.
I have to say, I’m at a loss for words. Once upon a time, the British establishment may have felt safe orchestrating wars abroad, mobilizing proxy forces and participating here and there. They enjoyed the “splendid isolation” of the British isles and seldom suffered the consequences of their perfidious scheming. But in the age of precision-guided hypersonic missiles and perpetual range cruise missiles, the splendid isolation no longer exists.
The Russians could easily target any and all of King Charles’ estates and castles, along with most other strategic assets of the realm. There are no defences against hypersonic missiles and and anything targeted could be vaporized in minutes. In view this, how clever is it to antagonize Russia and call for World War III?
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Today’s trading signals
With yesterday’s closing prices we have the following changes for the Key Markets portfolio:
