The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Badass Ukrainians on a Portuguese-Flagged Canadian-Operated German Cruiseship Sink (?) Venezuelan Attack Boat
I vouch for absolutely none of this.
See these items from the Jerusalem Post, Portugal Resident, Columbia Cruise Services; from the Jerusalem Post:
A Venezuelan navy ship fired shots at a German-owned cruise ship on March 30 and rammed into the passenger vessel, leading to the sinking of the warship in the Caribbean.
… Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the captain of the RCGS RESOLUTE cruise ship of "terrorism and piracy" and sought to force the ship into a new direction on the high seas. The cruise ship, which had no passengers on board and was flying under a Portuguese flag, has a reinforced hull that enables it to sail through ice water.
And from the Portugal Resident:
The paper has learnt that the Resolute crew is entirely made up of Ukrainians [woo-hoo! -EV].
The boat, although registered in Madeira and flying a Portuguese flag, is the property of a German cruise company. It was being operated by a Canadian concern, One Ocean Expeditions, for commercial trips to the Antarctic but had been "idle in Panama for some months due to financial problems of One Ocean Expeditions."
This of course reminds me of the old Soviet joke, mocking the Communist slogans of "Friendship of the Peoples":
What is the Friendship of the Peoples? Friendship of the Peoples is when Armenians, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, and Latvians join hands and go together to beat up a Jew.
(See here for a version where they beat up a Georgian, perhaps because it's framed as a Radio Yerevan joke.) Unsurprisingly, I don't go for a real-world version of that as such, but when Ukrainians, Portuguese, Germans, and Canadians (sailing out of Panama) sink a Venezuelan military boat, especially one that seemed to be up to no good ….
Thanks to InstaPundit for the pointer.
