of course, over a thousand of putin's darkfleet tankers dodging sanctions for years are nowhere to be found.
even though 90% are taking the same trip to china or india.

A week or two back, I posted an article about a load of Russian naphtha that a USN ship had blocked from entry into Venezuelan waters, two or three times. At last report, the ship was at sea, waiting for instructions. At that time, I suggested Trump could start seizing tankers with embargoed cargo, all over the world, auctioning the ships and cargoes, and pocketing the money. Well, here we are.

Someone replied in that thread that the USN does not have enough ships to intercept the thousand or so Russian "dark fleet" tankers. I suggested Lord Trump start issuing letters of marque, so Merc outfits could buy second/third hand frigates and start seizing tankers too. Remember, he has also been waggling his finger at Nigeria for "not protecting Christians". Nigeria exports some 475M barrels/year by sea. So, start grabbing those ships too.

Lord Trump's servile attitude toward Putin wavers, when money is involved. Recall how he was telling western Europe to buy USian LNG, rather than taking gas from Nord Stream 2? Trump says the tariffs on Indian goods are because of that country buying Russian oil.

If Lord Trump succeeded in forcing Ukraine to surrender, there would be no excuse for continuing sanctions on Russia. He would need to find another excuse to punish countries for buying oil from anyone other than his donors in the US.

The betting is that, once he has rolled up Venezuela, he will go after Rubio's pet project, Cuba. Cuba imports about 38M barrels/year. That would be another $2B/year in "contraband", plus the ships themselves, to be sold, and the money pocketed. I'm sure his nibs can find more weak countries to sanction, so he can loot their trade. South Africa exports about $75B of goods by sea each year, and Lord Trump accuses that country of "genocide against white people", so there is another target for the "Pirate King".

I Am A Pirate King | The Pirates of Penzance | TUNE

YouTube: I Am A Pirate King | The Pirates of Penzance | TUNE (TUNE - Musical Moments)

Steve