Rumours circulate in Russia on whereabouts of Arctic Sea crew

Algerians call Finland about cargo

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Contradictory reports have been circulating in Russia on the whereabouts of the crew of the recently hijacked cargo ship, the Arctic Sea. Officials say that everything is in order, but some of the family members say that they have still not heard from their loved ones.
      The Russian prosecution service on Wednesday denied reports that the members of the crew are being kept in a prison.
      According to a statement issued on Wednesday, the members of the crew are staying at a hotel in Moscow, and have been allowed to telephone their families. Both the crew, and the hijackers, who are being kept at Lefortovo Prison, are being questioned almost daily.
      The prosecution service insists that the crew are not under suspicion of any crime.
     
Director Nikolai Karpenkov of Solchart Archangelsk, which recruited the crew for the Finnish-owned Arctic Sea, has not been able to contact the men.
      “They are not answering their mobile phones in Moscow.”
      Helsingin Sanomat reached some of the family members of the crew in Archangelsk on Wednesday. The families knew nothing about the whereabouts of their relatives, and have not spoken to them.
     
The prosecution service said on Wednesday that the Arctic Seais now under Russian administration.
      Russian armed forces commander Nikolai Makarov says that the ship is being taken to the harbour of Novorossijsk in the Black Sea, where it will arrive sometime in the first ten days of September.
      Quoted by the news agency Ria novosti, Makarov said that the ship will be thoroughly examined in the harbour.
     
Russian officials have put out contradictory information on the cargo of the ship in recent days.
      On Tuesday the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the ship was only carrying wood. The prosecution service had no knowledge of any secret cargo, such as weapons. Rumours have been rife of something more valuable or sensitive having been aboard - timber does not appear on the face of it to be a cargo worthy of all the effort involved.
      On Wednesday, Alexandr Bastrykin, the head of the investigation, said that there may have been something else. Commander Makarov also does not rule out the possibility of smuggling.
      “We want to make sure that the ship really had nothing other than lumber. The motivation for the hijacking has not really come out”, Makarov said.
      He added that after the inspection, the ship will probably be returned to its legal owners.
     
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) feels that it is likely that the cargo really is limited to wood.
      “I am no ship expert, but a detailed and close search of the ship requires that it is done in port and not at sea”, said Rabbe von Hertzen of the NBI.
     
The original destination of the Arctic Sea was Algeria. The Algerian buyers of the load of wood contacted Finland to ask about the goods on Wednesday.
      Kari Naumanen, director of Rets Timber, which is responsible for the cargo, said that a phone all came on Wednesday. “If the cargo is unloaded in the Black Sea, it will make the transport more complicated”, he said.
      Naumanen had no knowledge of the present location of the ship, but he said that he believes that it 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.”
     
A further mystery to emerge on Wednesday was the claim in some media outlets that the Foreign Ministry in Moscow had reported that the Arctic Sea's captain had tried to pass the ship off as a North Korean vessel when it was stopped by the Russian Navy.
      This is apparently the first time that investigators have implicated the crew in the strange tale of the Arctic Sea.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Russia giving out little information on Arctic Sea mystery (25.8.2009)
  Arctic Sea: Freed Russian seamen questioned in remand prison (21.8.2009)
  Russia detains eight hijacking suspects on Arctic Sea (19.8.2009)
  Stora Enso has EUR 1.3 million worth of timber in missing ship Arctic Sea (10.8.2009)
  Location of "hijacked" Arctic Sea freighter a mystery (7.8.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat