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Moscow, Aug 21 (DPA) A Russian newspaper claimed Friday that suspected pirates who boarded the freighter Arctic Sea were actually agents of the Israeli secret service trying to stop it from smuggling arms into Iran. According to Russian media, the Arctic Sea may have been carrying illegal X-55 cruise missiles destined for Iran hidden among its cargo of lumber. Men acting on behalf of the Israeli Mossad secret service commandeered the ship to divert the weapons away from Israel's regional enemy, the daily Novaya Gazeta said. Citing Moscow publicist Yulia Latynina, the daily pointed to the surprise visit of Israeli...

A search is under way for a cargo ship which may have travelled through the English Channel after apparently being hijacked by pirates. Coastguards fear the Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea, carrying 15 Russian crew, was hijacked in the Baltic sea. UK authorities made contact before it entered the Strait of Dover but the Russian navy told the Itar-Tass agency it was now looking for the ship. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the situation was "bizarre". Spokesman Mark Clark said: "Who would think that a hijacked ship could pass through one of the most policed and concentrated waters in the world?...

The military airlifted the suspected hijackers of the Arctic Sea and most of its Russian crew from Cape Verde to Moscow on Thursday, after the lumber freighter mysteriously vanished and reappeared in the Atlantic. Eleven of the 15 crew members arrived in Moscow, while the captain and three sailors remained on the ship, which was adrift about 200 nautical miles from the West African island nation of Cape Verde. Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the freighter was sailing to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk. The sailors and their suspected captors arrived in two separate Il-76 cargo jets at the...

Russia says it tracked hijacked Arctic Sea all along, but questions grow over cargo Tony Halpin in Moscow Russia’s top general hinted today that the ship allegedly hijacked by pirates earlier this month may have been carrying a secret cargo, as it emerged that the country’s Navy tracked the vessel throughout its journey. President Medvedev sent the Russian Navy to find the Arctic Sea after it apparently disappeared while passing through the English Channel en route to Algeria from Finland. However, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow now says that Russian and international agencies had monitored the ship throughout its strange...

can’t say anything about the roots of this story and I don’t plan to dig further… I need to think about my own skin too. Understand that as you will.” —Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the Russian maritime Bulletin Sovfrakht., speaking about the “hijacking” of the Arctic Sea While it might seem like an unusual morphing of the movies Inside Man and The Hunt for Red October, the account of the cargo ship Arctic Sea is far stranger than either fictional account. Based on information developed through our extensive investigation, we can authoritatively state, without hyperbole, that the mysteries surrounding the...

The hijackers of a cargo ship that disappeared off the coast of France threatened to blow it up if their ransom demands were not met, Russian news agencies said.Russia has arrested eight people on suspicion of hijacking the Arctic Sea off the Swedish coast and sailing it to the Atlantic Ocean, ending weeks of silence about the fate of a ship which has intrigued European maritime authorities. Limited information from Russian officials has failed to satisfy sceptics who voiced doubts about whether the piracy actually took place or was a convenient cover story to conceal a possible secret cargo of...

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Russia's top general said on Wednesday the military would search the Arctic Sea merchant ship for a possible secret cargo when it returns to Russia from a maritime odyssey that has made headlines around the world.Russia says the Maltese-registered Arctic Sea, officially carrying timber from Finland to Algeria, was hijacked by eight men off the coast of Sweden on July 24. This month Russian warships intercepted the vessel off the coast of Cape Verde."We do not know yet what it is carrying, we only know it is timber. But what else it is actually transporting. It...

The Russian security service released the crew of the Arctic Sea in Moscow on Sunday. The 11 members of the crew of the hijacked ship were flown from Cape Verde to Russia nearly two weeks ago. The Russian news agency Interfax reports that the men returned to their home town of Archangelsk, where they were met by their families. On Sunday, Russian authorities gave conflicting accounts of whether or not all of the crew would be released. The online portal life.ru reported that only nine members of the crew had been released. Rabbe von Hertzen of the Finnish National Bureau...

In July, the Russian-manned cargo ship the Arctic Sea disappeared on its way to take timber from Finland to Algeria, sparking reports of the first incident of piracy in European waters since the days of the buccaneers. Experts and observers weighed in with their theories: the ship had been snatched in a commercial dispute; it was being used to run drugs; it was carrying something more precious — or dangerous — than timber. Since then, the Russian navy has found the ship, and the alleged hijackers who boarded it on July 24 have been charged with kidnapping and piracy. The...

Report: Russia hijacked its own ship Ynet probe reveals Russian intel used secret agents to arrest the Arctic Sea vessel, thought to have been hijacked by Israel, after getting tip it was violating international accord by carrying 'destabilizing' arms to Syria or Iran Ron Ben-Yishai Published: 09.02.09, 19:03 / Israel News A Ynet investigation revealed Wednesday that the hijacking of the Russian vessel 'Arctic Sea' was ordered by the Russian government. News agencies around the world published reports tying Israel to the hijacking, as the vessel was said to have been carrying arms to the Middle East, and possibly Iran....

The captain of the Arctic Sea freighter contacted the ship’s operating company Thursday for the first time since the ship mysteriously disappeared in July. The captain made a brief call to Solchart Arkhangelsk Ltd.’s office on his cell phone, a company spokesman said. “He said the rest of the crew on the ship is all fine,” the spokesman told Interfax. Eleven of the 15-member crew have returned to their families in Arkhangelsk, while the other four are on the ship sailing to Novorossiisk. The 11 were not allowed to contact their families for more than a week after they flew...

A senior Russian official says Moscow has started delivering S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who spoke on Monday on Ekho Moskvy radio, wouldn’t say how many systems have been delivered or provide any other specifics. […] The S-300 deal has long worried the U.S. and Israel, which see it as destabilizing. …

Iran's defence minister General Hossein Dehghan confirmed he would sign a contract with Russia to buy the Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets as sanctions set up in the wake of the nation’s nuclear deal with the West start to loosen. But US officials have said they will raise the matter with Russia, sparking yet another potential dead-lock between the two international superpowers. The Obama administration issued an official statement to remind Russia that, after the Iran nuclear deal, Moscow are forbidden from selling the fighter jets to the Shiite Muslim nation as it fights proxy wars in the powder keg of...

The ongoing back and forth surrounding Russia's sale of advanced S-300 missile systems to Iran continued on Wednesday, as the Defense Ministry in Moscow denied reports that the system would be delivered later this week. Earlier this week Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hossein Jaberi Ansari claimed that a shipment of the S-300 missile defense systems is currently on its way to Iran. In addition, the Russian TASS news agency cited reports from other media outlets claiming that the first batch of the S-300 systems would be dispatched to Iran on Thursday. ...

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says the country will take delivery of Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system by the end of the year. Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Tuesday, the Iranian minister added that the "executive stage" of the agreement for the delivery of the missile system is over, adding that Iran will receive a "major part" of the shipment in less than two months. "We have concluded a contract with the Russian side and it has also been signed," Dehqan said in response to a question about an earlier report on an agreement between Tehran...

Confirmation of Iran’s intention to develop nuclear weapons comes in the form of the announcement that the sale of Russia’s sophisticated and state-of-the-art S300 air and missile defense missile system has now reached the delivery stage. One does not need such weaponry to defend reactors generating nothing but electricity. In touting his deal with Iran over its nuclear program, which at best merely kicks the can past the end of his presidency so others can be blamed when it fails, President Obama has said that if Iran breaks the agreement we will know it. That sale and delivery of the...

Iran's Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan on Tuesday gave a run-down of the army's upcoming military buildup, and revealed that a new fighter jet announced in February has been delivered to the Iranian Air Force. Dehqan said the domestic double-cockpit supersonic Saeqeh 2 jets - whose name means "Thunderbolt" - have been deployed, reports the semi-official Fars News Agency. The jet, unveiled in February, is meant to be capable of tracing American and Israeli fighter jets according to the paper, which cited a senior Air Force commander Col. Houshang Monfaredzadeh saying as much back in February. .....

Moscow and Tehran have concluded negotiations on the delivery of the Russia's long-range S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran, which should take place "within a short period," said Iranian Deputy Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, on a visit in Moscow on Monday. "The negotiations were completed successfully. I believe that the delivery of the S-300 will take place in a relatively short time", the Iranian deputy minister was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

One hundred and fifty members of Congress – all Democrats and, among them, most of the small group of bitterly anti-Israel lawmakers – signed a letter supporting President Obama’s diplomatic efforts vis-à-vis the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Authored by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (Illinois), Lloyd Doggett (Texas), and David Price (North Carolina), the letter exemplifies the hyper-partisanship that has driven the left wing of the Democrat party on this issue even as that wing has cried “partisan extremism” at the responses from Republicans. As if trying to prove Churchill right, this Iran Surrender Caucus, whenever presented with a choice between dishonor...

What goes up, must come down! Russian army’s rocket launch test goes terribly wrong when missile drops straight back down and explodes in front of them [Whole title.] S300 barely takes off before plunging back to the ground Minute-long clip shows people dashing for cover as rocket hits ground Mishap comes shortly after footage of crash killing missile engineers Embarrassing footage has emerged of a missile launch going spectacularly wrong in Russia. The minute-long clip shows the S300 rocket barely managing to take off before plummeting back down to earth. A small thud can be heard and bits of debris...