The laden oil tanker Grinch, suspected of links to the Russian shadow fleet, has been allowed to leave French waters after three weeks immobilised off the Marseille‑Fos oil terminal, authorities confirmed on Tuesday.The 2005‑built aframax, falsely flagged to Comoros, had loaded crude at Russia’s Arctic port of Murmansk, and was boarded by French forces on January 22 in the Mediterranean.Prosecutors and the Bouches‑du‑Rhône and Mediterranean maritime prefectures said the ship’s owner was convicted under a plea procedure and handed a pecuniary penalty by the Marseille judicial court. The owner paid “several million euros” into the account of AGRASC — the agency that manages seized and confiscated assets — after failing to justify the vessel’s nationality, the authorities said. The Grinch had been sailing under a Comoros flag.France’s foreign minister Jean‑Noël Barrot wrote on X: “Contorting European sanctions has a price. Russia will no longer fund its war with impunity via a shadow fleet off our coasts.” Authorities added the owner has committed to obtaining a new, verifiable flag “as soon as possible.”