Washington DC, Jan. 7 -- An empty oil tanker, formerly known as Bella 1, has become the latest point of a face-off between the US and Russia as the latter sent naval assets including a submarine to bring it back, as per a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday.

As per the WSJ report, Bella 1 has been trying to evade the US blockade of sanctioned oil tankers near Venezuela for over a fortnight.

The vessel failed to dock in Venezuela and load with oil. Although the ship is empty, the US Coast Guard pursued it into the Atlantic in a bid to crack down on a fleet of tankers that ferry illicit oil around the world, including black-market oil sold by Russia, as reported by Wall Street Journal.

Earlier in December, the vessel's crew engaged i...