The Russians have the ship:
Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov informed President Dmitry Medvedev that the Russian-crewed freighter had been found safe about 300 miles from Cape Verde and that the 15 crew members were taken aboard another vessel for questioning.
The details stopped there.
Since the Arctic Sea sailed from the Finnish port of Pietarsaari on July 21 with a euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) cargo of timber, rumors and unconfirmed reports of misadventure has followed it.
It is interesting that the Russians removed the crew from the ship to the warship that intercepted the Arctic Sea.
I don't think that the lack of details is itself suspicious. These are Russians we're talking about, after all.
But the point remains that a ship able to disappear for this period of time could have sailed into a launch position if it carried cruise or ballistic missiles.
UPDATE: The Russians have the hijackers:
The two Russians, four Estonians and two Latvians were detained at sea after the Russian navy took control of the ship at an undisclosed location believed to be off the west coast of Africa.
"These people, claiming their boat had engine problems, boarded the Arctic Sea and, using the threat of arms, demanded that the crew follow all of their orders unconditionally," Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.
I wonder if we'll ever find out what happened?
UPDATE: The ship never actually "disappeared" but nobody admitted it to avoid tipping off the hijackers. This significantly lowers my worry about a ship being used to fire missiles.
