MOSCOW. Aug 19 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian dry cargo vessel Arctic Sea was detected back last Saturday, said Mikhail Voitenko, the editor-in-chief of the Internet publication Maritime Bulletin Sovfracht.
"I believed and continue to believe that the vessel was freed after the parties concerned reached a consensus. Well, let's be open, the Arctic Sea was found back last Saturday," Voitenko told Interfax on Wednesday.
The incident involving the Arctic Sea was "a one-time occurrence, and nothing threatens navigation in Europe," he said.
The Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, a dry cargo carrier whose crewed by 15 Russians, set out from the Finnish port of Jakobstad with a load of timber reportedly worth more than 1 million euro on July 22 and was scheduled to arrive in the Algerian port of Bejaia on August 4.
It never reached Bejaia and went off the radar on July 28, when it was off the Portuguese coast and heading for Gibraltar.
Criminal investigators said that around 1900 GMT on July 24, when the Arctic Sea was in Swedish waters, an inflatable speedboat came up to the ship.
The four Estonian, two Latvian and two Russian nationals who were in the dinghy claimed they needed help to mend their boat, but after coming aboard the Arctic Sea, they produced weapons and demanded that the crew unconditionally carry out all their orders.
After that, the cargo ship followed the route dictated by the hijackers, moving toward Africa, with its navigation equipment switched off.
Russian warship Ladny spotted the Arctic Sea off the Atlantic coast of Africa, captured the cargo vessel, rescued its crew, and detained the eight suspected hijackers.
Vladimir Dushin, Renaissance Insurance vice president for security, said earlier that "on August 3, the company had an anonymous phone call. The caller, who was speaking in English, demanded $1.5 million, threatening to shoot dead the crew and sink the vessel otherwise."