Arctic Sea: Thrust & Riposte

Finland's NBI claims: "Planning of the rescue operation took time, which explains why the vessel was stopped and boarded only after a period of several weeks." Perhaps this explanation is "unclear wording."

Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says that a claim made August 18 by the Malta Maritime Authority that the Arctic Sea was never entirely missing, is not completely accurate. The NBI says that reports of the Maltese claim are based on the unclear wording of a press release by the Malta Maratime Authority and that the location of Arctic Sea was not known at all times.

The information available to YLE is that Russian, Swedish, Maltese and Finnish officials closely monitored the movements of the vessel when located and the Russian Navy implemented the rescue operation.

Arctic Sea - hijackers on board

Eight hijackers were found on board the Arctic Sea in addition to the 15-man crew. The hijackers had approached the Arctic Sea in a dinghy, claiming they needed help to repair their vessel, The suspects include four Estonians, two Latvians and two Russians.

Arctic Sea found hiding off Dakar

"The media had been given deliberately misleading information “which did not allow them to calculate the true actions of the Russian forces”. The Russian said that there had been intensive exchanges of information with Nato forces, which had enabled the Russian navy to seize the ship and “save the crew”.

Russian Frigate Ladny holds crew of Arctic Sea

The Arctic Sea crew were not under armed control, some of the crew are of Russian nationality. Aboard the Frigate Ladny, the questioning aims to clarify all circumstances of how the ship disappeared and why did it not send any signals.

Arctic Sea crew being interrogated

The Arctic Sea was found early on August 17 300 miles (480 km) off Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean.
"The crew have been transferred to another ship. They are being interrogated now in order to find out what happened," Mr Serdyukov said, according to the agency.

Maltese-flag Artic Sea IMO 8912792

The Arctic Sea may have been hijacked by pirates. The freighter, operated by Helsinki-based Oy Solchart Management AB, was scheduled to deliver a cargo of timber to Bejaia, Algeria on Aug. 4,
“It would appear that the ship has not approached the Straits of Gibraltar, which indicates that the ship headed out into the Atlantic Ocean,”

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