U.S. seizure of Russian tanker marks rare escalation in sanctions enforcement against "dark fleet," but experts say move unlikely to trigger confrontation.

Russia has strongly condemned the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker. It heralds a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington that could spread to other areas and affect President Donald Trump’s efforts to persuade Russia to end its nearly four-year war in Ukraine.

Despite a close relationship with Caracas stretching back for decades, Russia has been reserved in its response to the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Simon Migliano, who compiled the Top10VPN shutdown report, told me “Iran’s current nationwide blackout is a blunt instrument intended to crush dissent, starkly different from the sophisticated, slow-burn digital censorship we’re seeing in Russia.”

Chinese, Russian and Iranian warships have launched a week of naval drills with host South African off the coast of Cape Town as geopolitical tensions run high over the United States’ intervention in Venezuela.

First came Russia’s “turtle tank”, a metal shed rumbling across the battlefield. Then Ukraine laughed at the so-called “hairy tank”, coated in long, wavy metal wires.

Finnish ‌police said ​on ‍Monday ​they ​had lifted ⁠a seizure on the "Fitburg" ‌cargo ship, which ​had been ‌held ‍on suspicion ⁠of sabotaging an undersea ​telecoms cable running from Helsinki to Estonia across the Gulf of Finland.

Russia and China are working together more closely in the Arctic — both in the air and at sea, says the top U.S. commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command. The co-operation also appears to be more tightly co-ordinated in a possible attempt to test U.