Putin puppet threatens to use NUKES as US seize Russian tanker

Aleksei Zhuravlyov threatened nuclear action against the US from Russia (Image: AP )

A political puppet of Vladimir Putin has ramped up threats to Donald Trump after the audacious US capture of a Russian oil tanker saying the 'piracy' could  warrant a nuclear response from Moscow. 

Sparking fears of armageddon, Kremlin warmonger Aleksey Zhuravlyov reacted with fury at the American seizure of the oil tanker Marinera this week. The vessel had been involved in a cat-and-mouse chase across the Atlantic after fleeing Venezuela for Russia. During the pursuit by US forces, the tanker changed its name from Bella 1 to Marinera and its flag-carrier from Guyanese to Russian.

Moscow also dispatched a submarine to shadow the fleeing tanker, which had originally travelled to South America from Iran, but US special forces, using RAF bases in the UK, staged a dramatic mid-Atlantic boarding mission and took control of the Marinera on Wednesday.

Mr Zhuravlyov, the first deputy head of the Russian State Duma’s defence committee, said: "The seizure of a civilian vessel by the armed US Navy is nothing short of piracy. There is no doubt that we must respond firmly and swiftly—our military doctrine even envisages the use of nuclear weapons in response to such an attack."

Aleksey Zhuravlyov (left) threatened the West with nuclear weapons over the tanker siege (Image: Getty )

The furious Russian minister added: "It is essentially the same as an attack on Russian territory, since the tanker was flying our national flag."

The US military has now thanked the UK for its "unwavering support" in the seizing of a Russian-flagged oil tanker. RAF surveillance aircraft and a naval supply ship, RFA Tideforce, assisted the operation to capture the Marinera in the Atlantic on Wednesday following a request from the US.

But no British personnel took part in the boarding of the vessel, Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs on Wednesday evening.

The Venezuelan-linked vessel, previously known as the Bella 1, was seized as it travelled north and eastwards through the waters between Iceland and Scotland. Following the operation, the US military's European Command posted on social media thanking the UK "for your unwavering support during the US operation to seize the M/V Bella".

US forces enabled by British assistance seized the Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic (Image: PA )

The message came just hours after Donald Trump criticised Nato allies, suggesting America was "always there" for the alliance "even if they won't be there for us".

America remains the only nation to have invoked Nato's collective security provision, known as Article 5, which led to other members of the alliance assisting in the response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.

The capture of the Marinera, which appeared bound for a Russian Arctic port, could prove a new flashpoint in relations between the West and Moscow, whose transport ministry appeared to suggest the international law of the sea had been breached. But Mr Healey told MPs the seizure had been legally justified as the tanker had been "stateless" and falsely flying the flag of Guyana when it was first intercepted.

He said: "A stateless vessel may be lawfully intercepted and subjected to the law of the interdicting state."

But the Russian foreign ministry suggested the seizure had breached the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, saying it had given the ship a "temporary permit to sail under the Russian Federation flag" on Christmas Eve.