He had come to deliver a cargo of magnesia for a subsidiary of the Roullier group in early March. But since then, the Russian freighter Vladimir Latyshev has never left the port of Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine). The immobilization of this imposing 141-meter-long ship had been decided at the request of customs as part of the freezing of Russian assets introduced after the invasion of Ukraine. On board, the six sailors and the captain of the ship therefore begin to find the time long, not knowing when they will be able to return to sea.
On the side of the Brittany region, port manager, we are also getting impatient. Because the Vladimir Latyshev takes up a lot of space in the Saint-Malo port, occupying a large part of the Jacques Cartier basin quay. The region is all the more worried about the situation as the Route du Rhum approaches. In a little over a month, we will indeed have to clear the way for the start of the famous transatlantic race in which 138 boats will participate, a record.
A Russian freighter already moved to the North
To find a solution, the region therefore wrote last week to the prefect to ask him that the Russian cargo ship be moved to a state or military port. This scenario has already happened in the North this summer. Blocked since February 26 in the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the cargo Russian Baltic Leader was thus moved at the beginning of August in the great seaport of Dunkirk.
Asked about this file on Monday morning, the prefect Emmanuel Berthier confirmed that he had received a request to this effect from the Brittany region. “I am in contact with the central administration to see how to respond to this request”, he indicated, without however specifying where the Russian cargo ship could be moved.