TASS reported Saturday from Istanbul that Turkey had begun imposing restrictions on commercial shipping in the Black Sea amid increased attacks on its vessels, citing Bloomberg and unnamed sources. [1] The Coast Guard, those sources said, had denied passage through the straits to some vessels bound for Novorossiysk or had asked for more time to process applications.

"There is no official confirmation of this information yet," TASS wrote. [1] That sentence is the Saturday record. The paper's major already treated Turkey's Black Sea traffic as a permit delay, not a Montreux closure. TASS is the Russian wire publishing the missing stamp.

A denied application is not a banned sea. Until Ankara confirms, the completed stage is Bloomberg's sources and TASS's caveat.

Bloomberg's sources, as TASS carried them, described Coast Guard delays and denials for some commercial ships headed to Novorossiysk, not a published ban on the whole sea. [1] Istanbul is the dateline. The missing Turkish stamp is the news. A second chokepoint sold from unnamed sources remains a second chokepoint sold from unnamed sources until Ankara speaks.

Until Ankara confirms, Bloomberg's sources remain Bloomberg's sources. [1]

A delayed Novorossiysk application is not a closed Montreux strait. [1]

TASS published the caveat. That is the Saturday confirmation. [1]

-- HENDRIK VAN DER BERG, Brussels