Arctic Sea : to find out what really happened

Russian law enforcement authorities want the help of their Estonian counterparts to interrogate security adviser and businessman Eerik-Niiles Kross again in Russia in connection with the hijacking of the cargo ship Arctic Sea in 2009. “Russia has not submitted a new legal aid request, but different states have the same interests concerning Arctic Sea – to find out what really happened,” Chief State Prosecutor Norman Aas said. “I have given my testimony to the corresponding Estonian institutions more than a year ago. The Estonian Prosecutor’s Office then said that I have no connection to the hijacking of the Arctic Sea,” said Kross, who is Estonia’s former foreign intelligence coordinator, adding that he has heard of unofficial attempts to take him as a defendant in the case to Russia.

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
earlier
and then

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.


earlier 1 earlier 2 earlier 3

Arctic Sea: at Damietta

EMethanex [Vancouver, Canada] is currently developing a 1.3 million tonne per year methanol facility at Damietta on the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt that, once operational, will be among the most competitive methanol plants in the world. Commercial operations from the facility are set to begin in 2010. This first-class production hub, which will supply primarily European methanol markets, will integrate seamlessly into Methanex’s global methanol supply chain. The EMethanex facility has the potential for future expansion and increased capacity to meet increased methanol demand.

Arctic Sea: return to the scene of the crime

Arctic Sea: Approaching hijacking site again

Finnish investigators are due back from Russia where they went to interview the alleged hijackers of the Arctic Sea, a vessel thought to have been caught illegally transporting AA missiles to Iran on that voyage. Meanwhile, the vessel is again approaching the scene of that incident. Finnish investigators have been cooperating in the probe along with Malta and Sweden.

Arctic Sea: Christmas in English Channel

Turned AIS transponder off after leaving Setubal around 12/22/2009 6:27:54 AM (UTC)and back on again on entering English Channel around 12/25/2009 12:50:35 AM (UTC)

Arctic Sea: destination changed back to KOTKA

Two members of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) traveled to Russia on December 16 to conduct an investigation into the hijacking of the Arctic Sea ship. They were to question suspects and meet with Russian investigators. They planned to return to Finland on December 18. The vessel in question last turned on its AIS transponder to enter Setubal Portugal and then again on December 21 to depart, headed North. At 2009-12-22 05:36, the vessel's destination was changed (back)to KOTKA, Finland.

Arctic Sea: Gone underground away from Finns?

Finnish investigators are travelling to Russia on December 16 to conduct an investigation into the hijacking of the Arctic Sea ship. Accordingly, the stated destination of the phantom vessel was changed at 2009-12-16 21:22 to read "Underground." Previously, the destination had read 2009-12-21 08:00 Kotka [Finland]. The vessel last turned on its AIS transponder to enter Setubal Portugal.

Rabbe von Hertzen, who is heading up the investigation, says two members of the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) are to question suspects and meet with Russian investigators. They are to return to Finland on December 18.

Von Hertzen says the trip is necessary because the suspects are being held in Russia.

The Arctic Sea was seized by a group of hijackers in Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea in July. The vessel was carrying a load of lumber from Finland to Algeria. The Russian Navy regained control of the ship off Africa’s west coast in August.

Arctic Sea: Romanova-Lebedeva reappears

A lawyer working on the case of the hijacked ship Arctic Sea has been found after going missing for several days. Yelena Romanova-Lebedeva's disappearance was reported to police after she was not seen nor heard from since leaving her Moscow office on December 9.

On December 13, Natalya Volkova, also a lawyer,said Romanova-Lebedeva had been away for professional reasons and had not been kidnapped."Yelena Romanova-Lebedeva is in Moscow. Her absence was connected to her professional activities," Volkova said.

The Arctic Sea last used its AIS transponder entering Setubal, Portugal.

Arctic Sea: Phantom vessel near Lisbon

Vessel turns on AIS transponder to enter Setubal, circles to pick up pilot? Turns off AIS transponder.

Arctic Sea: crew fought Estonian boarders?

Malta's Civil Protection Department personnel boarded the Maltese-flagged vessel 14 nautical miles off Malta on October 28. Members of the crew had resisted the hijackers [sic] and were injured. In fact, one had his teeth broken in a fight, according to accounts given to people who boarded the Arctic Sea.

The crew members said they were locked in their cabins until they were freed by the Russian navy in Cape Verde. The hijackers apparently also destroyed the long distance communication equipment and took the ship’s black box.

Earlier it was reported the captain of the Arctic Sea freighter contacted the ship’s operating company September 17 for the first time since the ship mysteriously disappeared in July.

The captain made a brief call to Solchart Arkhangelsk Ltd.’s office on his cell phone, a company spokesman said.

“He said the rest of the crew on the ship is all fine,” the spokesman told Interfax.


Earlier reports stated that sailors were able to communicate with the relatives by mobile phones – each talk 1-2 minutes, SMS-messages. But , Russian authorities, just took from sailors their sim-cards and cutted them off any communication.

“The fact that the military are on board plays no role in this case," Viktor Matveev, the director of Solchart Management which owns the Arctic Sea, told Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda on September 22. On September 24, Dmitri Bartenev , a rhib pilgrim picked up by the Arctic Sea on 24 July said that on 17 August, the Russian naval frigate, the Ladny, came alongside. The Arctic Sea's crew had spotted the heavily armed vessel two days previously and the crew broke out the vodka again. "We spent the last two nights on board getting drunk with the crew." On September 24, the remaining crew aboard (master, chief and 2 engineers) were reported "on the verge of a breakdown."

Arctic Sea: more on the 'hijackers'

A leaflet outside a local supermarket in Estonia advertising security work in Spain led to a work contract, vague and written in English. The leaflet attracted ethnic Russians in Estonia, ordinary layabouts, petty criminals and heavy drinkers, six friends and acquaintances, stateless men holding "gray passports." Born in Estonia, all but one never met the tough requirements for Estonian citizenship, part of a lost generation of former Soviets who unprepared to make it. "No one needs us," a girlfriend, one of three pictured, says. "Estonia isn't going to fight for them, and Russia doesn't need them. The fact that we were born here and our mother was born here doesn't matter to anyone."

Solchart Archangelsk director and shareholder Nikolai Karpenkov gives his email address

Arctic Sea: Task Force to access crew?

"The investigation is going on and it will take some time before we have concluded," says Jan-Olof Nyholm, detective superintendent at Finland’s Centralkriminalpolisen, Finland's National Bureau of Investigation, and a spokesman for the four-nation, [Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Malta], Helsinki-based police task force investigating the case. When asked if the task force has had access to the crew and hijackers as yet, he stated emphatically, "I think we'll make some progress here."

Russian Arctic Sea crew back home

NTV television says 11 crewmen arrived Saturday in the northern city of Arkhangelsk. It aired footage Sunday of reunions with relatives on a railroad platform. Russian authorities have charged eight men of different nationalities of hijacked the the Arctic Sea which was on it way from Finland to north Africa with timber. The investigation into the hijacking is made more complicated by the fact that the ship flies under the Maltese flag, the shipping line is Finnish, but is under Russian ownership, the entire crew are Russian, and the hijackers are apparently from the Baltic countries.

Arctic Sea: cargo tipped into the Atlantic

Published reports quote an anonymous high-ranking Russian Navy source who claims the pirates are believed to have been recruited as stooges by the intelligence services of a European Union country to intercept the ship and thwart the delivery of the missiles, according to a Russian newspaper, citing secret services sources in Russia. The paper suggested that the illegal cargo may have been tipped into the Atlantic, or have been secretly unloaded by the Russian navy which found the ship close to the Cape Verde islands off the west coat of Africa.

Some maritime security experts suspect the men had not been on the ship at all, but were part of an elaborate cover-up. The Russians seem to be treating the Arctic Sea as a pirate ship, rather than a ship captured by pirates. The Basmanny District Court has issued a writ seizing the ship, and the Russian navy is towing the vessel to Novorossiysk, apparently without stopping to unload its timber in Algeria. And rather than being released, the crew has apparently been detained in Moscow for what Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee, called “urgent interrogation.”

Arctic Sea: big lumber company, small shipment

Stora Enso owns 250 cubic meters of sawn timber with a value of about Eur 50,000 out of the total 6,700 cubic meters of timber cargo with a value of Eur 1,3 million on board the Arctic Sea,
Stora Enso and UPM sold the goods, 1,750 and 250 cubic meters respectively, to their joint venture, distribution company RETS, Nordlund said. RETS had to deliver the goods to the port of destination (Bejaia, Algeria).

The original destination of the Arctic Sea was Algeria. The ship is being towed by the Russian Navy.
“I am surprised that the ship wasn’t refuelled in Cape Verde. Fuel is available in all harbours. Perhaps the navy wants to keep the ship in its own hands.”

The Finnish owners of the vessel’s cargo said they were simply shipping redwood for windows and doors in Algeria.

“We sold the timber to three customers in Algeria.” He declined to give the customers’ names.

The police have not questioned the company about the ship and its freight. Rets Timber, a joint venture between Europe’s largest papermaker, Stora Enso Oyj, and UPM-Kymmene Oyj, Kari Naumanen, chief executive officer at Helsinki-based Rets. Most of the lumber came from other companies. here

The Russian tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets, citing Russian security sources, said the Arctic Sea was smuggling arms and that the hijackers were stooges hired by the intelligence service of an EU member state to intercept it. Suspected hijacker, Russian Dmitry Bartenev’s brother said he believed that the hijacking suspects had been caught up in “political games.”

“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.” He did not elaborate.
Sweden, Malta and Finland have been called upon by Russia to help answer questions in the investigation into the hijacking and disappearance this summer of the "Arctic Sea" freighter. "But what else it is actually transporting. It has yet to be clarified," Nikolai Makarov, chief of Russia's general staff, told reporters during an official visit to Mongolia.

"We want to make sure that there is nothing but timber on board this ship. The motive for the seizure is simply not very clear," said Makarov.

Authorities in Finland, which the Arctic Sea departed from on July 23, have said it was not carrying any radioactive cargo.

Arctic Sea: Love that Chendin 2/dul/dhool

The Foreign Ministry said that, when the ship was intercepted, its captain claimed it was the North Korean vessel Chendin-2, and was headed from Havana to Sierra Leone with a cargo of palm wood.

It said North Korea had asserted that was impossible, saying the Chendin-2 was docked at an Angolan port at the time. The Russian navy's search of the ship ''confirmed the suggestion that it was really the Arctic Sea."

1. How did the Arctic Sea's captain know about the Chendin-2. Can you find it?
2. The Russians needed to ask the North Koreans? What about binoculars. The Maltese-flagged ship says 'Arctic Sea' on the bow and stern, Or does it?
3. Why the Foreign Ministry and not the Investigative Committee in charge of the hijackers?