Arctic Sea ‘hijacker’ says piracy theory is Russian cover-up
One of the alleged pirates arrested for the hijacking of the Arctic Sea, the Maltese-flagged ship that veered off course on its way to Algeria, has spoken out over a possible cover-up by the Russian government.
Konstantin Baranovsky – lawyer for one of the “pirates” – claimed his client Dmitry Bartenev, a 41-year-old sailor from the Estonian capital of Tallinn, was part of a team of “ecologists” but has so far refused to disclose the name of their organisation.
Bartenev is currently being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, Russia’s most notorious lock-up. The prison is under the control of the FSB – the successor of Soviet secret police, the KGB. Bartenev claims that he and his friends were saved by the Arctic Sea in the Baltic before noticing that they were being followed by the Russian navy, and then arrested off Cape Verde.
He said that on 24 July, he and his colleagues set off from Pärnu in an inflatable dinghy to test a new GPS unit. They were hit by a big wave, with water flooding their navigation system. Later in the evening, they were saved by the Arctic Sea, which was just passing by.
“The crew were very friendly. When they realised we were Russians, they took us to the saloon bar and cracked open a bottle of vodka. There was a lot of booze on the Arctic Sea: whisky and strong alcohol of all kinds.”
Bartenev says he asked the captain to put them ashore at the nearest port – but the request was refused without explanation. But while Russian investigators say their three weeks on board the Arctic Sea was a tense hostage drama, Bartenev has claimed they spent the time swimming, sunbathing and sipping drinks.
“There was a swimming pool; the crew had improvised it at the bottom of the ship. We swam in it. There was also a gym, which we were allowed to use. We spent a lot of time sunbathing,” Bartenev says. “We slept in a small cabin. We made friends with several engineers and the cook. He cooked for us together with everybody else.”
Bartenev said he had no idea that the ship was at the centre of an international search, after it was meant to have reached the port of Bejaia in Algeria, on 4 August, with $2 million in timber.
“We didn’t realise it had gone missing,” Bartenev said, although his colleagues say they noticed the ship was veering several thousand miles in the wrong direction, down the west coast of Africa. “It got warmer. We were clearly heading south,” he told his lawyer.
Then on 17 August, the Russian naval frigate Ladny came alongside. The Arctic Sea’s crew had already spotted the heavily armed vessel two days previously. Bartenev said the last two nights on board were spent getting drunk with the crew.
He said that on approach, the Arctic Sea’s captain told the Russians that his vessel was North Korean. Upon arrest, Bartenev and the rest of the crew were taken to a military airport on the Cape Verde islands and then transferred by Ilyushin Il-76 military plane to Moscow, thrown in jail and charged with kidnapping and piracy.
Eleven of the Arctic Sea’s sailors were also flown back to Moscow for interrogation, and subsequently barred from talking to the press. The captain, Sergei Zaretsky, and three others stayed behind.
One month later they are still on the boat, which instead of heading back to Russia had been kept out of view somewhere near the Canary Islands.
Baranovsky said the Russian investigators’ account of the drama as “ludicrous”. “The official version of the incident isn’t true. It looks like eight mad guys took a rubber boat, went into the centre of the Baltic Sea, and grabbed a ship full of lumber. It’s not only strange, it’s unbelievable.”
Cover-up Speculation has swirled in Russian and British papers that the Arctic Sea was carrying a secret consignment of S-300 anti-aircraft interceptors, destined for Tehran.
Israel is opposed to Iran’s acquisition of any anti-aircraft weapon that could thwart an Israeli air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Suspicion of a government cover-up grew last week when Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, made a secret dash to Moscow.
The Kremlin and Netanyahu’s office initially denied that he had visited Russia – only to confirm later that he had surreptitiously dropped in by private jet. A subsequent report in the Sunday Times, citing Israeli intelligence sources, suggested that Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, had set up Bartenev and his gangster friends to “hijack” the ship, to force the Russian government’s hand and prevent the S-300s from reaching Iran.
Defence experts however said that a large, complex anti-aircraft system such as the S-300 simply can’t be stuffed inside an old shipping container. Furthermore, Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, told CNN last Sunday that he didn’t have a problem with flogging weapons to Iran, so long as they were for defensive purposes. Russia has a contract to supply Tehran with S-300s, but so far has not delivered them.
Bartenev’s brother Alexey has added a different twist to the story. Alexey says a mysterious businessman named “Vladimir” recruited Bartenev and his seven friends in mid-July, whizzing round the Baltic Sea, filming tankers as they chucked rubbish overboard – an environmental role, in fact.
The revelation adds further weight to speculation that Russia’s intelligence or security community was using the Arctic Sea to illegally smuggle weapons from the port of Kaliningrad.
Further speculation has fuelled the possible scenario that a potentially embarrassing rogue business deal, was covered up by a pretend hijacking – the perfect pretext for the Russian authorities to board the Arctic Sea and quietly retrieve its cargo, and to justify a lavish air-and-sea rescue mission.
The Arctic Sea ‘rescue’ mission was later followed by the “disappearance” of Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the online maritime bulletin Sovfracht, who has claimed an unidentified caller warned him he was “stepping on the toes of some serious people”. He left for Istanbul and is now in hiding in Bangkok, Thailand.
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