Definitely a better source than RT…

“WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The United States is attempting to seize a Russian-flagged oil tanker with links to Venezuela after a more than two-week-long pursuit across the Atlantic and as a Russian submarine and warship were close by, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
The seizure, which could stoke tensions with Russia, came after the tanker, originally known as the Bella-1, slipped through a U.S. maritime "blockade" of sanctioned tankers and rebuffed U.S. Coast Guard efforts to board it.
The officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation was being carried out by the Coast Guard and U.S. military.
This appeared to be the first time in recent memory that the U.S. military has attempted to seize a Russian-flagged vessel.
They added that Russian military vessels were in the general vicinity of the operation, including a Russian submarine. It was unclear how close the vessels were to the operation, which was taking place close to Iceland.
The U.S. Coast Guard first attempted to intercept the vessel last month, but it refused to be boarded. Since then, it has registered under a Russian flag.”

What will Vlad do?

Not a damned thing, Putin's military high command knows that they have no chance of taking on the US Navy.
Putin will rant and rave, issue hollow threats, but that's about all he can do.

However, this is just another illegal seizure by an illegal regime.

CNN has it up now - US begins operation to seize Russian-flagged oil tanker linked to Venezuela

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/07/politics/oil-tanker-us-seizure

AP also threw up a breaking banner - https://apnews.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-tanker-77f2c1441dda8217b37f9e38c3ae9131

Updated the post - thank you

I'll save my outrage for confirmation.
My outrage reserves have been running low these days.

My phone and iPad are "be-dooping" off the hook with the "breaking news" banners!

US Attempts to Seize Russia-Flagged Ship ‘Marinera’ in Atlantic

Ais tracking from Marine traffic shows likely intercept and change of course

Track it yourself here.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid 11469

Link to tweet

I've been watching this guy for years about the Ukraine war.. a straight shooter

This is an idiotic move by our government, but seriously, if the intention was to capture it, why wait until it gets to the stormy dangerous waters of the north atlantic? Its just all so bizarre.

Perhaps they were waiting until it was far enough north for ships from Norfolk to intercept it, instead of having the ships in the carribean leave and pursue.
I’m also hearing European assets and facilities were used to support this operation, so there is that