The Mistral Vladivostok Without Nationality Following A Russian Piracy Act?

The unexpected change of the MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) of the Mistral Vladivostok last friday November the 14th, showing this one as russian on online tracking systems, raises a few questions:

Who decided this change and why?

Who decided to change the MMSI is quite unclear at the moment where we are writing this article. DCNS explains it not very convincingly by a test requested by VERITAS.

Less than one hour after we published an article warning of the MMSI change, the beacon stopped sending signals with the russian MMSI and started sending with the french MMSI the day after. Everything is leading us to think that a russian crew member proceeded with this manipulation and was rebuffed following our publication and the questions asked consequently to DCNS.

Technically speaking, the MMSI number programmed on the beacon cannot be modified without prior unblocking provided by the manufacturer, similar to unblocking a cellular phone. This is due to a recommendation from the ANFA (Agence nationale des fréquences) to prevent abuses and a boat to pretend being another one.

Two options: whether a technician was really on board to process the change, or somebody managed to find a method to unblock the beacon and process the change fraudulently (easy to find on internet).

Considering the consequences for the war ship to have two different MMSI recorded, it was unlikely a test ordered by VERITAS as you will see.

What are the consequences?

First of all, an MMSI record is nothing less than an official recording of the fact that the boat is under the flag defined by the first three digits of the MMSI. On the 14th of November, test or not, the war ship was officially under russian flag, and not only virtualy through the tracking system used by differents websites including marinetraffic.

Using another MMSI number than the one assigned by the country to which a boat belongs is considered by Interpol as a piracy act according to this document on the pirate ship "Snake" "suspected of using illegally the identification number (MMSI) of another boat to make it seem that it is in reality legally under Mongolian flag."

Technically speaking, the Mistral Vladivostol moored in the port of St-Nazaire has two MMSI right now, the russian one (273549920) and the french one(227022600), making her under French and Russian flags at the same time.

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 and, save in exceptional cases expressly provided for in international treaties or in this Convention, shall be subject to its exclusive jurisdiction on the high seas. A ship may not change its flag during a voyage or while in a port of call, save in the case of a real transfer of ownership or change of registry.
2. A ship which sails under the flags of two or more States, using them according to convenience, may not claim any of the nationalities in question with respect to any other State, and may be assimilated to a ship without nationality

Assigning a russian MMSI to the war ship and setting it live on the 14th of November outlaws the Mistral, placing her in a position forbidden by the article number 92 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, being under two flags and therefore without nationality.

The information unveiled by the french newspaper Ouest France according to which the russian sailors were forbidden to board the Mistral on Monday supports the theory that the MMSI change was processed by one of them without any french official authorization. (on Tuesday, the russian sailors were allowed to board again on the Mistral)

Let us remind you here of the fact that the official website of the port of St-Nazaire announced not long ago a departure of the Mistral on the 21st of November.. without return date.

Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the Sovfracht maritime bulletin and russian expert wrote: "Roughly speaking, this "unofficial" change of the AIS signal is similar to someone breaking into the French Embassy in Russia, lowering down the French flag and raising another one."

He qualified this as "a serious incident, a flagrant violation of rules, norms and propriety, and in fact, an insult to France"

A few questions remain unanswered: what was the motivation behind this change? Stupidity? Provocation? Test? Wich russian telecom authority delivered the MMSI? Based on what documents? The MMSI cannot have been delivered without the explicit approval of the russian government.

In the meantime in St-Nazaire, the Mistral Vladivostok is flagless...

Dimitri Halby, No Mistrals for Putin

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