Mikhail Voitenko fled to Istanbul after receiving a menacing telephone call over his report hinting the ship may have been carrying a secret shipment of we
A journalist who broke the story of a Russian cargo ship apparently hijacked by pirates announced he had fled Russia, fearing for his life.
Mikhail Voitenko, editor of the online maritime bulletin Sovfracht, said he had left the country after receiving a menacing late-night phone call. Voitenko said an unidentified man called him on Tuesday night and warned him he was “stepping on the heels of some serious people.”
PHOTO: EPA
Speaking by telephone from Istanbul, where he is in hiding, Voitenko said he was bluntly informed that these “guys are out for revenge. I was told: ‘They are very unhappy with you. But they don’t want unpleasantness.’”
Voitenko said the man urged him to leave Russia.
He said he intended to stay out of the country until “things calmed down.”
Voitenko was the first person to report on the disappearance of the Arctic Sea, which mysteriously vanished after passing through the Channel on July 28, carrying a £1.1 million (US$1.8 million) cargo of Finnish timber.
Russia says hijackers seized the ship four days earlier in international waters near Sweden and that its navy recovered the boat on Aug. 17 in the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa.
Russia has charged eight people, mostly Estonians, with kidnapping and piracy. The story has dominated the Russian press, which has identified most of the kidnappers as ethnic Russians and has called in experts to identify the men from their tattoos.
Voitenko, however, has repeatedly cast doubt on the official version of events. The main source of information on the hijacking in the early days of the crisis, he has hinted that the ship may have been carrying a secret shipment of weapons, or, he suggested, “something much more expensive and dangerous.”
Sounding distinctly frightened, Voitenko said on Thursday he did not know the identity of his mystery caller. But he hinted that the man who spoke with a “chilling voice” may have represented the FSB, Russia’s powerful and secretive post-KGB spy agency. He also said that Russia was “deliberately covering up this mystery.”
Asked what was really hidden on board the Arctic Sea, he replied cryptically: “Half of those involved in this were private individuals. But half were linked with the state.”
Russia has for years endured chronic problems with criminal groups, some with murky links to the state, smuggling military and mineral wealth to lucrative markets overseas. From oil to missile components, Kalashnikovs to aircraft, the value of contraband disappearing across eastern and western borders is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Bribable officials and porous borders mean smugglers can often operate with impunity, though several high profile cases have been uncovered in recent months.
All 15 Russian sailors involved in the Arctic Sea drama were released unharmed. So far, however, they have failed to give a convincing account of what happened, with even Russia’s investigative committee head, Alexander Bastrykin, admitting last week that the ship “might have been carrying not only timber.”
Adding further intrigue, Russian chief of general staff, Nikolai Makarov, said the vessel would be searched for a possible secret cargo when it returns to Russia later this month.
Last night Voitenko said the fact the Arctic Sea’s disappearance has grown into an international scandal was hardly surprising.
“This isn’t a usual situation. You don’t normally get attacks on ships on the Baltic coast,” he said.apons
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion