Arctic Sea on the move with 'warship'

The Russian embassy in Madrid had requested and received permission for the Arctic Sea, which is being towed by a tug under the escort of a warship, to call at the port of Las Palmas, adding that the convoy was 14 miles off the coast and should arrive closer to evening, a Spanish marine spokesperson said.

Arctic Sea, four of crew never brought home

Four original crew members, all Russians, remain on board the small Turkish-built, maltese-flag vessel of a Russian-owned Finnish company, now located 16 nautical miles off Gran Canaria. More exactly, it is owned by a Malta-based company, Arctic Sea Ltd., belonging to a Finnish company Oy White Sea Ltd. This company is owned and run by Victor Matveev (Viktor Matvejev) a Russian citizen living in Finland. Matvejev is also the CEO and a major shareholder with Vladimir Voronov, a Russian citizen living in Finland, of Oy Solchart Management Ab, a Finnish company that manages the Arctic Sea's cargo operations. Victor Karpenkov is the Arkhangelsk [Russia]-based manager of the Russian division of Solchart.

Arctic Sea located 16 nautical miles off Las Palmas

A Maltese team composed of police officers and officials from the Malta Maritime Authority boarded the Arctic Sea Sep. 11 to carry out a maritime safety investigation into the ship in parallel with a law enforcement one, the MMA said.

The MMA said that an agreement was reached between the Russian and Maltese authorities for a Maltese team to join the Russian investigative team who boarded the Arctic Sea on Sep 07.

The ship is currently under the control of the Russian authorities and is located 16 nautical miles off Las Palmas.

The Maltese flagged ship is owned by a Finnish company whose inspectors were yesterday stopped by Russian soldiers from boarding the ship.

Three Russian Il-76 transport plans (each capable of carrying 44 tons of cargo) were used to bring in the crew and suspected hijackers (or two or eight?).

Israel's deputy prime minister confirmed on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited Russia but declined to elaborate on the affair, which has triggered media accusations of official disinformation.

"He was in Russia. It created some controversy about the way it was published in Israel," Dan Meridor told Reuters in Geneva on the sidelines of a conference about global issues hosted by Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The content was not discussed in public. Some things are better discussed (privately)," added Meridor, who is also Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy.

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 in Las Palmas

Solchart's chief executive Viktor Matveyev said Solchart's representative, currently in Las Palmas, had tried to board the Arctic Sea on the morning of Sep. 10 but Russian soldiers had stopped him.
The Russian prosecutor's office told Russian news agency Interfax that the ship would be handed over to Maltese authorities in Las Palmas, in Spain's Canary Islands, once the investigation was completed.

Arctic Sea: shipment of missiles aborted

Israeli officials have been forced to admit that Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, made a secret trip to Moscow. Reports suggested that S-300 surface-to-air missiles were being shipped on the Arctic Sea but shipment had been aborted after it came to the attention of Mossad, the Israeli secret service. Russia is said to have had a commitment to Israel that would not sell any weapons to Israel’s enemies that could shift the regional balance of power.

Arctic Sea never left Islands

Russian defense officials said September 10 that the Arctic Sea will be handed over to Malta, and the Ladny frigate will return to its Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol, Crimea, and that both ships are now in one of the ports on the Canary Islands. RIA Novosti

Authorities previously said the "Arctic Sea" would arrive in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in mid-September.