The Mistral Vladivostok Is Not Russian Anymore!

Good news, the russian identification MMSI (273549920) for the Mistral Vladivostok has completely been disabled and doesn't officially exist anymore. The page where we were able to see it until today now returns a 404 error while a research with the vessel name "Vladivostok" on the website marinetraffic returns only one result, the French one!

Following last Friday's act of piracy when the russian crew replaced the French MMSI by a russian one while trying to move all their belongings to the Mistral to take officially possession of it, the Vladivostok was considered without nationality as she was under flags of two different countries.

According to the article 92 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea:

1. Ships shall sail under the flag of one State only [...]
2. A ship which sails under the flags of two or more States [...] may be assimilated to a ship without nationality

Although Romain Nadal, spokesperson of the French Ministry of Foreign affairs, officially stated the day after the piracy that the war ship was back under French flag, technically, the war ship was stil assigned two MMSIs and therefore without nationality. MMSIs are regulated and managed internationally by the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland.

The ITU obviously removed the russian MMSI from its database. This is an important step in the direction of the NON delivery of the ship!

The second helicopter carrier, named Sevastopol left its dry dock without ceremony on Thursday and is being prepared for trials. The Mistral Vladivostok is now in the Louis Joubert Lock in St Nazaire, last obstacle to access the sea. French government are aware of the risks of seing her sail away to Russia illegally following the scenario of the "Boats of Cherbourg".

In 1965, French sold 12 "Sa'ar 3" class missile boats to the Isreali government. Built in Cherbourg, 5 of these boats were delivered before Charles de Gaulle's government impose an Embargo in 1967 following the six-day war. Two of the boats, at the moment the Embargo was decided, were on sea trials and were able to sail to Israel safely. Israel managed to have the 5 remaining boats to escape too with the complicity of people working at the port of Cherbourg.

Security around the boat has been reinforced after last week russian act of piracy as Russian sailors obviously respect none of the international rules and have unpredictable actions.

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