The Russian-crewed freighter that sparked a high-seas mystery when it disappeared nearly three weeks ago has been found by a Russian naval frigate off the West African coast, the country’s defense minister said Monday.
The Arctic Sea’s 15 crew members, last heard from July 28, were alive and now aboard the navy ship, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev shown on national TV.
He did not give details about what happened to the ship.
Since the Arctic Sea sailed from the Finnish port of Pietarsaari on July 21, a fog of rumors, unconfirmed reports and red herrings has swirled around it.
On July 30, Swedish police said the ship’s owner had reported that the crew claimed the vessel was boarded by masked men on July 24 near the Swedish island of Gotland. The invaders reportedly tied up the crew, beat them, claimed they were looking for drugs, then sped off about 12 hours later in an inflatable craft.
Adding to the mystery, Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told the ITAR-Tass news agency Monday that bogus information was deliberately provided to news media “which did not allow them to calculate the true actions of the Russian forces.”
With details still sparse, Viktor Matveyev, director of the ship’s operator Solchart, told The Associated Press “We are all incredibly happy. Now the big work starts to find out what happened.”
