This letter to the European Commission calls for its intervention in view of the French authorities’ inability to enforce the EU’s port sanctions, while other Member States are strictly implementing them. To this end, it documents the Shtandart’s stopovers in La Rochelle, its participation in the 2025 Gulf Week and the risk of further stopovers in spring 2026.
Archives de l’étiquette : Ukraine
La « grande culture russe », matrice d’un suprémacisme à l’origine de la guerre en Ukraine
Depuis février 2022, beaucoup cherchent à dissocier la guerre menée par la Russie de ce qu’on appelle la “grande culture russe”. Cette distinction, flatteuse pour les consciences occidentales, permet de continuer à admirer Tolstoï, Tchaïkovski ou Tarkovski sans malaise. Pourtant, si l’on examine la structure même de ce que recouvre cette expression, il faut reconnaître que le concept de “grande culture russe” est lui-même porteur d’une injustifiabl hiérarchie civilisationnelle. Il a puissamment contribué à rendre pensable et acceptable la guerre d’agression contre l’Ukraine.
The case of the sailing ship Shtandart: defending maritime heritage against misinterpretation and harassment
The website shtandart.eu has just published an article entitled “The Case of the Sailing Ship Shtandart: Defending Maritime Heritage Against Misinterpretation and Harassment.” This text devotes many pages to portraying the Russian frigate Shtandart as an innocent cultural project, while turning its attacks personally against Bernard Grua, spokesperson of the collective No Shtandart in Europe.
Alert: Imminent risk of illegal entry into Spanish southern territorial waters and ports by the Russian vessel « Shtandart »
The Russian vessel Shtandart, despite the explicit prohibition by the Court of Justice of the European Union, continues attempting to enter EU ports. Following recent incidents in Galicia and Portugal, the international collective No Shtandart in Europe alerts the Spanish authorities of the imminent risk of incursions into the country’s southern waters.
Alert: Violation of Spanish Territorial Waters by the « Shtandart », a Sanctioned Russian Vessel
The presence of the Shtandart in Spanish waters is not a simple maritime incident but a clear breach of European sanctions and Spain’s national sovereignty. This ship, a symbol of Russian propaganda and previously expelled from Spain in 2024, returned to Galicia in September 2025, openly defying the country’s decisions. Its presence undermines the credibility of the European Union’s restrictive measures and requires a firm and immediate response from the Spanish authorities.
The “Shtandart” explicitly banned – the Court of Justice of the European Union puts an end to its deceptive narrative
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)has confirmed that the Russian ship Shtandart has been subject to port sanctions since 16 April 2022. With Vladimir Martus having made public the confidential correspondence received on this subject, a number of organisations and institutions that chose to ignore the texts and disregard the well-founded warnings communicated to them could find themselves in an awkward position.
“Shtandart”: the judicial harassment strategy orchestrated by Thierry Clerc and the Russian Vladimir Martus against Bernard Grua
Since 2023, Thierry Clerc and Vladimir Martus have launched, against, Bernard Grua, the spokesperson of the collective No Shtandart in Europe, a series of legal measures: formal notices, police report, criminal complaint, interventions with French authorities, and public communication campaigns. All these initiatives, none of which succeeded in court, fit into a pattern that the European Union recognizes as SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation): actions intended to intimidate and deter critical expression, without any real prospect of success in the courts.
Analyse rhétorique du président de l’association « Les Amis des Grands Voiliers — Sail Training Association France » concernant le navire russe « Shtandart » sous sanctions.
Une lettre de Michel Balique, président de l’organisation Les Amis des Grands Voiliers — Sail Training Association France, datée du 3 janvier 2025, fournit un résumé remarquable de la rhétorique utilisée contre les militants qui s’opposent au non-respect des sanctions par le navire russe Shtandart au cours des trois dernières années.
A rhetorical analysis of the president of the ‘Les Amis des Grands Voiliers — Sail Training Association France’ in relation to the sanctioned Russian ship, ‘Shtandart’.
Dated 3 January 2025, a letter from Michel Balique, president of Les Amis des Grands Voiliers — Sail Training Association France, provides a remarkable summary of the rhetoric used against activists opposing the Russian ship Shtandart’s failure to comply with sanctions over the past three years.
How did « Les Amis des Grands Voiliers – Sail Training Association France » deviate from its mandate and damage its reputation by promoting an illicit circumvention of EU sanctions ?
Michel Balique ridiculed and discredited Les Amis des Grands Voiliers primarily by converting its platform into a pro‑Shtandart lobbying machine, repeatedly dodging substantive legal critique, and replacing it with rhetorical excess and personal invective. The result, according to critics, was to tarnish the association’s founders’ intentions and academic legitimacy, presenting it as complicit in illicit circumvention of EU sanctions.
The "Shtandart" In Europe 