Arctic Sea: becomes Shelley Express

The ghost vessel Arctic Sea is no more, its owner's website is down, and the company's Dutch owner is merged.
Vessel's Name Flag Call Sign Last Reported
ARCTIC SEA Barbados 8PWS 2011-11-03 15:26
BBCTIC SEA Barbados 8PWS 2011-09-17 21:04
ARCTIC SEA Malta 9HDN8 2010-05-12 08:55

www.glfl.ca/


Following two years of close cooperation initiated by Hans Laue, Gisholt Shipping, between Dutch Shipowners CFL (Canada Feeder Lines) and Scan-Trans, Scan-Trans now issues new shares that enables CFL to become a 20% shareholder in Scan-Trans Holding A/S.
Great Lakes Feeder Lines was successfully formed in continuation to its founders forming Canada Feeder Lines, a now Dutch based European shipping company with no further ties to Canada, Great Lakes Feeder Lines, its founders, or to trading vessels in Canada or the United States.



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Arctic Sea: those two Ilyushin-76 cargo planes

A COURT in Russia's far northern region of Arkhangelsk is hearing testimony from six men accused of hijacking the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship, in 2009, the bizarre disappearance of which prompted international speculation about a secret Russian arms sale to the Middle East gone awry. see
Alexei Bartenev, the brother of one of the defendants, says the case remains a mystery. Why Russia flew the eight alleged hijackers and some of the crew - 16 people in all - were flown from Canary Islands to Russia on two large Ilyushin-76 cargo planes capable of carrying 40 tons each, if not also to carry weapons or other illicit cargo. "All I can say is that it's very suspicious."
Economist
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Arctic Sea: wobegone hijackers go to trial

Tatyana Barteneva, mother of Dmitry Bartenev




Irina Verenich wife of Aleksei Andrushin



Tatyana Seleven, wife of Igor Borisov





Nastya Strelkova, Andrushin's sister


Arkhangelsk regional court is trying six for seizure of the Arctic Sea: Alexei Andryushin, Dmitry Bartenev, Alexei Buleyev, Igor Borisov, Vitalijs Lepins and Yevgeny Mironov Five defendants pleaded partially guilty, and one pleaded guilty to all the charges,"
The review of the 52-volume criminal case is expected to last several months. The families of the men on trial for piracy say the highly unlikely hijackers are the biggest victims in the case. Few in Estonia believe there's any chance they'll soon return to Lasnamae.

People in Tallinn's Russian community who know the men dismiss the allegations as absurd. They say the alleged hijackers are ordinary layabouts, petty criminals and heavy drinkers who couldn't possibly have been capable of pulling off a major international heist on the high seas.

Tatyana Barteneva's son Dmitry Bartenev is one of the men on trial in Moscow. Inside the tidy, cramped apartment she shared until recently with both her two grown sons, the 63-year-old nurse with a blond bob hairstyle defends Bartenev and the other alleged hijackers as the victims of a plot they didn't understand.

"I don't think they're such idiots as to pick a fight with Russia," she says. "Why would they need that?"

Barteneva has lived in Tallinn since the age of 9, when her father, a Soviet military officer, was posted here in the 1950s. Her late husband was the captain of a fishing trawler, and their son Dmitry took odd jobs at sea.

Tallinn's Lasmanae neighborhood, the home of many ethnic Russians
According to his brother Aleksei Bartenev, Dmitry was unemployed last March when he noticed a leaflet outside a local supermarket advertising security work in Spain. A big man with prominent features and a crew-cut, the 42-year-old sometime sailor was on probation for drunk driving. He described the job to several of his friends, who jumped at the chance to travel abroad for pay.

The men shared similar backgrounds. Born in Estonia, all but one never met the tough requirements for Estonian citizenship. Locals say Bartenev and others like him are part of a lost generation of former Soviets who were unprepared to make it in what became a new country after the communist collapse.
“I think they were framed, and it is not just my opinion, everybody who knows them also thinks so,” Alexei Bartenev. “They were seeking a job and got involved in a political conflict, were made hostages of a political game.”
Sitting in a popular local bar called Zanzibar, where leopard-print seat pillows offer some visual relief from the uniform apartment blocks outside, Irina Verenich the wife of Aleksei Andrushin -- an unemployed, 28-year-old construction worker --"I told him so many times, 'What are you doing?'" she says. "I said, 'You help people you don't even know, and no one will help you in return.' And that's exactly what happened."
In addition to the six Russians from Lasnamae, two men from Latvia signed up for the work he offered. Several of the men posted notices on a popular social-networking site saying they'd be away for several months. They told their families they'd be gone until early October.


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Arctic Sea: Russia used criminals - wikileaks

In the cable's most revealing section José "Pepe" Grinda Gonzalez, Spain's national court prosecutor referred to the case of the Arctic Sea ship as an example of arms trafficking. Russia maintains pirates seized the vessel in July 2009 off the coast of Sweden, diverting it to Africa and the Cape Verde islands. It has consistently denied there were any weapons on board.

Although Gonzalez does not elaborate, his remarks suggest he believes the ship was used by organised criminals to smuggle arms under secret orders from Russia's intelligence agencies. There has been speculation the ship was carrying S-300 missiles destined for Iran. read

Arctic Sea: Canceled Iran S-300 for drones?

Russia offered Israel $1 billion for advanced drone (automatic aircraft) technologies, and in addition offered to cancel the deal to supply Iran with S-300 missiles, according to an official cable published November 28 via WikiLeaks.
The cable was sent by US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher after meeting Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at the Defense Ministry Amos Gilad. The cable was sent one year before the Kremlin announced it would cancel its deal to supply Iran with the missiles.

Arctic Sea: Russian Prosecutor gets hijack case

Eerik-Niiles Kross




Investigations into six suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea freighter have been completed and sent to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee said November 17. Earlier this month, the Investigative Committee sent the case of a suspected ninth member of the group, Sergei Demchenko, to court.

Maritime and military experts have claimed the ship was carrying S-300 anti-aircraft missiles for Iran,

Demchenko, who went to school with Savins, is accused of helping train the hijackers in Estonia.

June 2010
In a plea bargain, Savins testified against the alleged mastermind behind the attack, Eerik-Niiles Kross, the former head of Estonia's foreign intelligence service.

Savins said Kross had acted in collusion with another organizer of the attack - Sergei Demchenko, a German-based businessman.

Kross denied the allegations.

"The allegations that I ordered the seizure of the Arctic Sea are at variance with the facts," he was quoted as saying by Estonian daily Eesti Paevaleht. "I believe that these fabrications are connected to my consultation services for Georgia on security matters. Georgia is not Russia's best friend."

Kross owns Trustcorp, a consultancy firm that has in the past few years been working with Georgian state agencies.

Latvian prosecutors said there was no evidence linking Kross to the Arctic Sea seizure. Eerik-Niiles Kross, who served as the director of Security Coordination Office in the Estonian State Chancellery, which is connected to the Ministry of Defense Information Service (Riigi Teabeamet), from 1995 to 2000.

Lisbon NATO Summit and Russia: Crown Jewels for Chicken Feed? November 16, 2010
By: Eerik-Niiles Kross read

Arctic Sea: AA missile merchant arrives in NYC

Russian arms trafficking suspect Viktor Bout was flown from Bangkok to suburban New York on Tuesday November 16, in a chartered U.S. plane,
Bout arrived late Tuesday night at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh
Bout was to be transported from Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, to downtown Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center,

Arctic Sea: AA missile merchant to be tried in USA

Igor Sechin



"The delivery of 100 Russian anti-aircraft missiles appears to be a government-sponsored program ... it is frightening to consider what Bout could tell US authorities about who promised to provide him with [those] 100 Russian anti-aircraft weapons." One plausible answer was ventured in another recent Moscow Times opinion piece by Yulia Latynina, host of a political talk show on Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio station. She pointed out that Bout served in Mozambique in the 1980s, along with a man named Igor Sechin, who today serves as Russia's deputy prime minister and who is widely considered the second-most-important person in that country after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Viktor Bout,is now finally set to stand trial in the US after he was flown out of Bangkok on Tuesday, November 16, on a US government jet shortly after the Thai cabinet approved his extradition. His wife did not have a chance to say goodbye. Born in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe in 1967 when it was still under Soviet rule, Bout studied languages - including English, French and Portuguese - at Moscow's military institute for foreign languages before joining the air force.

He has repeatedly denied suggestions that he was a former KGB agent and that he bought weaponry, aircraft and helicopters at throwaway rates at the fall of the Soviet Union to supply to conflict zones. Bout has maintained his innocence from the day he was picked up in the Thai capital after allegedly agreeing to supply surface-to-air missiles in a series of covert meetings that also took him to Denmark and Romania.

Arctic Sea: Reverse flow to North Korea?

North Korea's No Dong ballistic missile has a tri-conic nose cone. That configuration is typically associated with Iran’s Shahab-3, causing analysts to say that technical information gleaned by Tehran in flight trials is being fed to Pyongyang. Such a move would suggest that Iran has made considerable progress in developing its indigenous missile-engineering ­expertise.The rapid rise is in Iranian ­lower-end rocket threats. The biggest worry stems from the fact that Iran is being equipped with inexpensive but effective guidance systems that have tightened targeting errors.

Arctic Sea: S-300 down payment refunded Iran

Russia announced October 7 that it will refund Iran the down-payment it paid for the S-300 air defense system. "We should return them all the funds," Russian Technologies chief Sergei Chemezov

Arctic Sea: Iran to build S-300 clones?

Commenting on Moscow’s failure to honor its commitment to deliver the S300 missile air defense system to Iran, Brigadier General Mohammad-Hassan Mansourian said, ""We purchased the system for our operational needs, but they haven't delivered it to us.""

Local industries are trying to replace the S300 system with similar home-made missiles to meet domestic air defense requirements, he explained

Moscow University: pirates all killed - Voitenko

A suspicion the pirates have all been killed Voitenko









An unnamed high-level Russian Defense Ministry official says the pirates who boarded the tanker Moscow University never made it to shore and were likely dead.

The official said the suspects were stripped of their weapons and navigation equipment and, about 300 nautical miles (550 kilometers) from shore, were put into one of the speed boats they used in the hijacking.

Pirate Gets 5 Years in Arctic Sea Case
10 May 2010 An Estonian-born man was convicted of piracy and handed a five-year sentence by the Moscow City Court over the purported highjacking of the Russian-crewed Arctic Sea freighter last summer.

MOSCOW, May 5 (Itar-Tass) - The Investigation Committee under the Prosecutor General's Office (SKP) opened a criminal case over piracy on Wednesday, after pirates captured the "Moscow University" tanker with a Russian crew off the Gulf of Aden.

The SKP's main department opened a criminal case over "piracy committed with use of violence and weapons by an organized group. The penalty for this offense envisions up to 15 years in jail," SKP spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.

It is the second time Russia opens criminal proceedings over piracy. The first such probe was conducted over the capture of the Arctic Sea vessel. The probe is nearing completion at present.

The Arctic Sea bulk carrier with a crew of 15 sailors from the Russian town of Arkhangelsk, was captured on July 24, 2009. It had a load of timber, and headed for Algeria from Finland. The vessel was captured in Sweden's territorial waters.

On August 17, the Ladny coastguard vessel of the Russian Black Sea Fleet freed the crew off Cape Verde Islands. Eight captors - citizens of Russia, Estonia and Latvia - were arrested and charged with piracy. They are in custody awaiting trial.

May 6, The pirates seized by a Russian warship off the coast of Somalia have been released because of ''imperfections'' in international law, the Defense Ministry said Friday, it was unclear how the seizure of the tanker might be legally different from last year's alleged hijacking of the Russian-crewed freighter Arctic Sea. That vessel allegedly was seized by pirates in the Baltic Sea off Sweden and went missing for several days before a Russian warship tracked it down off West Africa. The eight alleged pirates were flown to Moscow to face eventual trial. . The Arctic Sea, was suspected last year of transporting Russian missiles destined for Iran. Moscow has said it plans to fulfill a contract to supply the S-300 AA missile to Iran.

A Defense Ministry source told RIA Novosti that they were sent off in a small inflatable boat, having been disarmed and stripped of navigational equipment.

May 7 “A decision was made to let them go on a small vessel they used for attacking the tanker,” he RF Defence Ministry’s press service told Itar-Tass on Friday.
... The life of an inmate in a Russian prison camp is more comfortable than life in Somalia, in addition to which they are eligible for parole,

Arctic Sea: Russia repeats S-300 delivery plan

Moscow has said it plans to fulfill a contract to supply the S-300 to Iran. The Arctic Sea, bound for Bejaia, Algeria, has again disappeared from AIS systems coming out of the English Channel. This freighter was suspected last year of transporting arms destined for Iran. The S-300, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft. The missiles have a range of 150 km (90 miles) or more and travel at over two km per second. Russia has delivered 15 S-300 batteries to China, Interfax news agency quoted Igor Ashurbeili, director general of Almaz Antei which makes the missiles. China, once the largest customer for Russian arms, has bought about 27 S-300 batteries from Russia beginning in the 1990s, the “bare minimum” for its arsenal The new contracts to deliver the S-300 to China were signed in the mid-2000s and each battery usually costs about $120-$150 million. That indicates the value of the Chinese contract was about $1.80-$2.25 billion. Russia has a more advanced air defense system, known as the S-400 "Triumph," and Ashurbeili said the country's armed forces were expected to receive the third battery of these "any day from now."

A senior Russian general said last year that Moscow was now developing a fifth-generation, surface-to-air missile, the S-500, which would be able to implement the tasks of both air and space defense.

Officials have said that the new system would be capable of engaging ballistic hypersonic targets flying at a speed of 5 km (3 miles) per second. here