MOSCOW has attempted to blame British spies for staging the North Sea tanker crash after a Russian captain was arrested.
Pro-Putin propagandists have attempted to shift the blame by pushing a wild conspiracy theory.
Shipping company Ernst Russ confirmed today that the captain of the Solong container ship – now in custody – is Russian.
Panic sparked after his vessel rammed into the Stena Immaculate – a US military ship – off the coast of England.
The Russian captain has not been named by Humberside police but was arrested “on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the collision”.
The horror collision ignited dramatic fires on both ships and raised fears about whether it was an attack.
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Putin‘s puppets have pushed a crazed conspiracy theory that British spies were to blame for the horror crash.
Russian media commentator Vladimir Kornilov said: “How predictable everything is with the British.
“The arrested captain of the Portuguese dry cargo ship Solong, which rammed an American military tanker off the coast of England just before the [war] negotiations between Russia and the USA, of course, turned out to be a Russian citizen.”
The conspiracy theorist even attempted to claim Moscow would be blamed and said “London would definitely look for a ‘Russian trace’”.
He added: “Something tells me that this whole accident was organised under this ‘trace’.”
Another Kremlin propagandist, Sergey Mardan, also peddled the mad idea.
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He said: “There are many interesting coincidences and details in this case.
“Pentagon fuel, a tanker flying an exotic American flag for the merchant fleet, and now a Russian captain.
“The location of the emergency should also be taken into account – the territorial waters of Great Britain.”
Plenty of unanswered questions remain, including why anti-crash systems failed.
Shadow transport minister Jerome Mayhew said the nationality of the Solong’s captain raises “further questions” about the incident.
He said: “Where military assets are damaged it is vital that motives are fully investigated to exclude foul play.
“The nationality of the captain of the Solong raises further questions about potential motivation that the Government must now get to the bottom of.”
The shipping company confirmed the rest of the crew were Russian and Filipino.
One sailor from the Solong remains missing but is presumed dead.
Cops are continuing to speak to those involved to understand what happened after the vessel collided with US-flagged tanker Stena Immaculate.
Salvors are readying themselves to get onboard the tanker this morning, with “no visible flames” present, according to HM Coastguard.
The statement added: “Only then will it be possible to carry out comprehensive damage assessments.”
The White House has also not ruled out foul play, according to a senior official.
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More questions have been raised after it emerged that a July 2024 inspection in Dublin found the vessel’s “emergency steering position communications/compass reading” unreadable.
Inspectors found a total of 10 deficiencies, including “inadequate” alarms, survival craft “not properly maintained” and fire doors “not as required.”