Piracy in the Baltic Sea

[Watser?]

A ship operating under the Maltese flag, owned by a Finnish company and with a Russian crew was last spotted north of the French coast on July 30 and was probably hijacked three weeks ago near the Swedish island of Gotland.

Russia's navy has been deployed to find a ship reportedly hijacked three weeks ago in the Baltic Sea.

Up to five vessels - reported to include nuclear submarines - will be involved in the search for the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, the navy confirmed.

It has a 15-strong Russian crew and was reportedly taking timber worth $1.5m (£900,000) from Finland to Algeria when it was boarded by gunmen on 24 July.

British authorities say the 4,000-tonne vessel may have been spotted subsequently by a Portuguese coastal patrol aircraft, but its current location remains unknown.

...

Nick Davis, who runs the private security firm Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions, told the BBC that the relatively low value of the cargo suggested the ship's seizure may be the result of a "commercial dispute" in which one party had decided to "take matters into their own hands".

But he added: "Piracy is piracy - if someone's wanting to take that vessel, and they're not authorised, and they use a speedboat to go and get it, then it's no different to what the Somalis do."

BBC NEWS | Europe | Russian navy joins hunt for ship

[California Tanker]

The Russian history of dealing with pirates tends to be fairly similar with that the French have. Low pirate survival rate.

Waiting three weeks to go hunting seems to make it a bit more difficult, though.

NTM

[Watser?]

Well, the way I understand it the Finns and Swedes have been searching for some time.

[Miisa]

There is something very fishy about that ship in general. First piracy in The friggin' Baltic (basically unheard-of in this day and age), yet the "pirates" leave empty-handed, and then it up and vanishis in the Atlantic a couple of weeks later? I bet it was carrying something else than what was supposed to.

[Watser?]

I heard the message saying the armed men had left the ship was probably sent by the pirates themselves.

But yeah, something is fishy. Either the cargo is something else or the ship itself is the booty.

[Watser?]

A source linked to the Cape Verde coastguard told AFP news agency the Arctic Sea was outside its territorial waters.

The coastguard was informing maritime officials about the ship's movements, the source said, adding: "When the ship enters our jurisdiction, we will decide in consultation with our partners what actions to take."

Some reports have put the ship 400 nautical miles north of Sao Vicente.

French intelligence said it had found a ship matching the Arctic Sea's description in the area.

Radar contact with the Arctic Sea was lost after it left the English Channel

However, the Russian ambassador to Cape Verde, Alexander Karpushin, said he had not been officially informed of the sighting and told Russia's RAI agency the sighting was "not true".

BBC NEWS | Europe | Mystery remains over cargo vessel

My bet is there are weapons on board for one of Africa's wars.

[Watser?]

More weirdness:

A Russian maritime Web site said the tracking system for a freighter missing since last month was broadcasting signals today from the Bay of Biscay, but French Marines said the signals were coming from Russian warships.

The contradictory claims deepened the mystery surrounding the ship, the Arctic Sea. Today, widespread reports suggested it may be in the vicinity of Cape Verde, off the coast of Africa some 2,000 miles south of the Bay of Biscay.

The respected Sovfrakht maritime site said the ship's signal appeared on a tracking service about 0830 GMT this morning in the Bay of Biscay.

The site cautioned, however, that the Arctic Sea's Automatic Identification System equipment may not be on the ship itself anymore. The signal disappeared after about an hour, it said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...e-1772693.html

[Watser?]

And now this:

Finnish police say a ransom demand has been made for a missing Russian-manned cargo vessel, the Arctic Sea.

The demand - which has not been confirmed as genuine - was put to the ship's Finnish owners, Finland's National Bureau of Investigation said.

A Finnish radio station said it had been told the 15 crew members' lives would be at risk if it was not paid.

BBC NEWS | Europe | 'Ransom demand' for missing ship

[Watser?]

Russia says it has found a missing cargo vessel near the Cape Verde islands and retrieved its Russian crew.

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that the 15-member crew had been taken on board a Russian navy vessel. They were in good condition, he said.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Russia 'finds missing cargo ship'

Still nothing really on wtf happened...

The Russian minister said crew was not under armed control when the ship was found around 2100 GMT Sunday some 300 miles (480 kilometers) away from the island nation of Cape Verde.

"The crew is alive, all are alive and healthy," Serdyukov was quoted by the RIA-Novosti news agency as telling President Dmitry Medvedev.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090817/...u/missing_ship

[Dingfod]

Maybe the pirates really did leave the ship after discovering it was only carrying lumber.

[Miisa]

So the same ship was attacked by pirates twice, in areas where no other pirates seem to hang around? Seems unlikely. Talk about being hit by lightening repeatedly.

Or the same incredibly dumb pirates.

[Watser?]

The BBC is speculating a bit:

Mikhail Voitenko, editor of Russia's Sovfracht maritime bulletin, went one further, to suggest "the vessel was loaded secretly with something we don't know anything about".

Also speaking while the ship was still missing, he ruled out drugs or "illegal criminal cargo", adding: "I think it is something much more expensive and dangerous.

"It seems some third party didn't want this transit to be fulfilled so they made this situation highly sophisticated and very complicated," he told the Russia Today news channel.

He pointed out that the unknown cargo could have been loaded in Russia's Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad, between Poland and Lithuania, where the ship underwent repairs before picking up its cargo in Finland.

BBC NEWS | Europe | What happened on board the Arctic Sea?

I'm pretty sure that something was loaded on board that ship in Russia that the Russian authorities did not want delivered. That's why they sent so many warships after it, that's why they set up a false lead in the Bay of Biscay. and that's why they took the crew on board their warships, despite the fact they were "alive and healthy". They are trying to cover up something. Not sure how that squares with the pirate incident though.

[Miisa]

The "pirate incident" was a group of guys impersonating police, speaking broken English, arriving on a rubber boat, staying 12 hours on board and then leaving without any loot.

It is all really sketchy.

[Watser?]

aHA!

Finally some quality rumours:

This correspondent asked a former GRU (Russian Military Intelligence) officer, who many years ago escaped to the West, what he thought was on board the Arctic Sea. Instead of giving a direct answer, he suggested checking an obscure Russian-language website Anvictory.org, where a former Russian military officer based in Ukraine, Vladimir Filin, posted an article entitled, "Biochemical weapon which [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin intends to drop on Jewish heads." Filin writes that the Arctic Sea, under the cover of a load of Finnish timber, was delivering a shipment of weapons to Iran via Algeria.

Filin said the crates (loaded on board in Kaliningrad) could have contained four X-55 strategic cruise missiles (without front sections) and devices to implement an air launch from military planes of the SU-24 type, provided that the aircraft were retrofitted as carriers of a single cruise missile.

He asserts, too, that this was not the first shipment. According to Filin:

Russia had previously delivered to Iran the front sections of X-55, which was retrofitted to carry Soviet-made chemical weapons.

The biochemical weapons were already delivered from Russia to Iran by air. It was expected that, in the near future, Russian specialists would arrive in Iran in order to bring the SU-24 and X-55 up to a state of readiness and to train Iranian military personnel.

It was also expected that, given the high probability of an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, X-55 missiles loaded with biochemical warheads could be used in the Iranian counterstrike against Israeli cities.

[...] Given the scale of the potential international brouhaha, a country with a distinct interest in preventing this shipment chose to interdict it in an unofficial manner.

[...] So far, this is all what I have to say.

Most notably, this article was written before the Russian navy rescued the ship.

Last Thursday, the former commander of defense forces of Estonia, Tarmo Kiuts, repeated the same presumption. He said on board the Arctic Sea most probably were Russian X-55 missiles that the vessel was carrying to Iran.

In its latest version, official Russian television said ecologists had hijacked the Arctic Sea because they had ran out of fuel for their boats.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KH26Ag01.html

Let's face it, that official version sounds a lot more ridiculous than any rumours I've heard so far.

[Adam]

Anvictory.org

I don't read Furrin, so I have no idea what that site is about, but is winning an victory anything like being an hero?

[Watser?]

A journalist has fled Russia after suggesting the Arctic Sea cargo ship that was apparently hijacked in July may have been carrying illegal weapons.

Mikhail Voitenko said he had been told to leave Moscow or face arrest.

The editor of Sovfracht, an online maritime journal, fled on Wednesday, saying he may not be able to return as his life would be in danger.

...

Mr Voitenko - who was among the first to cast doubt on official explanations about the ship's disappearance - told the BBC it was nonsense to suggest pirates had been involved.

Instead he suggested the ship may have been carrying a secret shipment of weapons as part of a private business deal by state officials.

Speaking to the BBC from Turkey, Mr Voitenko said he had received a threatening phone call from "serious people" whom he suggested may have been members of Russia's intelligence agency, the FSB.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Russia ship mystery editor flees

[Dingfod]

The Russian government wanted them back because they only ship illegal weapons to who they want to ship illegal weapons to, not necessarily those with the most money.

[Watser?]

Israel was linked to the interception of the missing cargo ship Arctic Sea last month, a senior figure close to Israeli intelligence has told the BBC.

The source said Israel had told Moscow it knew the ship was secretly carrying a Russian air defence system for Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed speculation that S-300 missiles were on board the ship.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has denied making a secret visit to Moscow on Monday.

Mr Netanyahu's office says he was visiting an Israeli security installation when he vanished from public view for much of the day.

A BBC correspondent points out that the claim of a secret arms shipment come as Israel seeks to highlight the threat posed by Iran.

BBC NEWS | Europe | 'Israel link' in Arctic Sea case