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: no handover of the ship

Spanish authorities gave permission for the Arctic Sea, the Ladny frigate, which freed the cargo vessel from hijackers, and a Russian tug boat to call at Las Palmas on Sep 15, but cancelled the decision on Sep. 16 without giving any explanation after Malta refused to take part in the handover of the ship, at the Spanish port.

Arctic Sea: Not in a position to tell you anything

Each year recently, according to AIS [Automatic Identification System] records, the Arctic Sea appears to be missing from the logs in the Mediterranean for up to 20 days at a time. In April this year, the Arctic Sea is missing from AIS port-call records between April 1, when it transited the Gibraltar Straits, moving east, and April 11, when it returned through the straits, moving west. Reporting by John Helmer,
A similar gap in the log records appeared a year earlier, between February 13, 2008, when the Arctic Sea sailed east past Gibraltar into the Mediterranean, and 20 days later, on March 4, when it transited the Gibraltar Straits moving west.
In 2007, the gap in the logs appears between April 26, when the vessel entered the Mediterranean, and May 14, when it exited. In all cases, the vessel appears to have taken on cargo at Loviisa and Kotka (Finland), and Tallinn (Estonia).

In Helsinki, two of the registered owners of the Solchart group, Victor Matveyev and Vladimir Voronov, were also asked to say where the Arctic Sea was during the three "missing" periods identified by AIS. Voronov said: "I am not in a position to tell you anything", and referred calls to Matveyev. Asked twice to identify the ports of call in the three periods, Matveyev hung up the telephone without answering.

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."

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).

Crew in custody for protection as witnesses

The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has not received any information on why the crew was also being held, and if they were suspected of wrongdoing.
Russian prosecutors said 24 August that the crew had been placed in custody, because they needed protection as witnesses. The Federal Penitentiary Service (FPS) of Russia has denied a mass media report that crew members of the Arctic Sea dry cargo ship, on being freed from the pirates’ detention, are held in the Lefortovo investigation ward in Moscow, the FPS spokesman said investigation FPS ward-2, just as any other investigation ward in Russia, holds persons only on court ruling.

The Federal Penitentiary Service did not specify the whereabouts of 11 crewmembers of the Arctic Sea taken to Moscow.

Mikhail Voitenko, editor of Russia's Sovfracht has said: "The only sensible answer is that the vessel was loaded secretly with something we don't know anything about."