On February 23, France officially confirmed the presence of two Russian citizens working for a private security company on the oil tanker that was inspected and detained by the country's authorities in September 2025.
Western media continuously made accusations that the ship named Boracay was transporting Russian oil and gas to cope with encirclement and sanctions from the US and Europe.
According to sources from France, the two men (34 and 40 years old) are employees of Moran Security Group - a Russian private security company. The French side accused them of having the task of monitoring the crew and collecting information. One of the two people is believed to be a former law enforcement officer and used to work for the private military company Wagner.
Western sources accuse the role of this group of people on the Boracay ship of ensuring that the captain complies with regulations protecting goods in Russia's interests.
Not stopping there, European officials also tried to link the movement of this ship with the appearances of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Denmark last year, considering this as part of complex security operations in the region.
Previously, French authorities inspected the ship and issued a short-term detention order for the captain for questioning. It is expected that the captain of this ship will face an absent trial in Brest city in western France this week on charges of disobeying the authorities' requests.
Speaking about the incident, lawyer Henri de Richemont - the defender for the captain - confirmed the presence of 2 Russian citizens. However, this lawyer affirmed that his client was not involved in their work, and emphasized that the Russian staff boarded the ship as property protectors, not the crew. The captain was not at all the one who made the decision to arrange security personnel on board.
