Arctic Sea. Continuation of the comedy

FIRST ECHELON OF LIES

The Arctic Sea cargo ship disappeared again, along with its crew - this time after the valiant Russian Navy liberated it from the “pirates.” The sailors are sitting either in Lefortovo or in a hotel, their families are in hysterics. And the branded nonsense from the UPC, which periodically claims that sailors are “completely free,” does not add clarity. In addition, it is unknown where the ship itself is! The Navy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the SKP unanimously lied about this until a specialist wrote on the Maritime Bulletin forum who, a couple of years ago, installed one of the tracking systems on the Arctic Sea. And it turned out that ten days after the liberation, the ship was hanging out drifting not far from the same Cape Verde - apparently, waiting for bunkering along with the Ladny accompanying it.

The most surprising thing in everything that is happening after the liberation of Arctic Sea is precisely the lack of information. August: terrorist attack in Nazran, accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. Our government loves positive news so much, they would overwhelm us with details of the heroic operation to free the sailors, but no, the details leak out a teaspoon at a time and it would be better if they didn’t leak out, because everything that leaked out is a lie.

They show us 8 of some painted morons and assure us that it was they who captured the Arctic Sea on July 24th. Excuse me, but can these morons even speak broken English? Then they show a sailor declaring that “a month has already passed”, and the marks from the handcuffs are still preserved. Excuse me, so they put plastic handcuffs on him a month ago? Then who are these painted morons who put their feet on the table in the investigator’s office (an amazing detail spotted by a gazeta.ru correspondent)? The apotheosis of all this nonsense was the Arctic Sea capture scheme, which was accidentally missed on TV: on a collision course, two boats connected by a rope approach a cargo ship, the ship lifts the rope with its nose, and the boats are pressed to the sides: the invaders instantly climb up. Can you imagine the sea, the night and the speed at which all this happens? “Alpha” will not carry out such an operation without preliminary long training. And they present us with painted morons. (Then they say that the ship was allegedly captured twice.)

But perhaps best of all are Rogozin’s words about the “disinformation” that accompanied the heroic operation. Can you find out - whose misinformation?

On the night of August 14, Cape Verdean coastguards spotted the Arctic Sea 740 nautical miles from Cape Verde. The next day, the Russian Ambassador to Cape Verde stated that the Arctic Sea was not there, although at that time our ships were heading, like salmon to spawn, to Cape Verde, where the Arctic Sea was discovered.

On 15 August, AIS Arctic Sea was operational again in the Bay of Biscay; The Maritime Bulletin managed to take a screenshot, the AIS fell silent, and soon the French Ministry of Defense announced that the signal did not come from the Arctic Sea, but from one of the Russian warships (it’s the same as if the license plate of the wanted car was found on a message sent to it search for a military armored personnel carrier).

If this is a disinformation operation, then who was disinformed – the pirates? They already knew where the Arctic Sea was. Europeans, so that they don’t board the Arctic Sea before the Russian military? Is it possible to find out what kind of thing the ship was carrying, that no outsider, except the Russian military, should have been the first to board it?

And here’s another question: in fact, if the Arctic Sea was allegedly captured for ransom, why turn off AIS at all? Somali pirates don’t turn off AIS - no matter what, they, on the contrary, talk for hours on satellite phones on the ship. In “Nord-Ost” and in Beslan, the terrorists did not disappear into subspace. Hostages, and not unknown coordinates, are the guarantee of the safety of pirates and terrorists. And if the pirates turned off AIS in order to get away when they realized that the entire fleet was chasing them, then what stopped them from getting off the ship for 17 (!) days?

SECOND ECHELON OF LIES

Following the first echelon of lies, a second one appeared. It turned out that the Kremlin’s humanism had developed to such an extent that it threw almost the entire Russian Navy to the rescue of 15 hostages, then it turned out that 15 hostages were isolated somewhere so as not to talk too much (can you imagine if after Beslan all the hostages arrested?). Numerous “leaks”, “reports from sources in the special services”, etc. have appeared, on the basis of which articles of exceptional idiocy are written. These “sources”, as a rule, report to various “MK”, “KR” and life.ru that the Arctic Sea could be used by some Western intelligence service to transport weapons, that the pirates were “used in secret by foreign intelligence”, etc.

Oh my God! But who will bring the weapons from Kaliningrad - the Malays, or what? And who will hire 8 Russian-speaking morons for a secret operation? No MI5?

All these articles pursue a very specific goal: to reverse the understanding of whose “weapon” was and whose “special operation” in the public’s minds. The extreme helplessness of lies also distinguishes this class of materials, and that is why real pearls are found among the dung heaps.

Here, for example, is this one. “Everything was going well for the invaders until the boatswain from the Arctic Sea sent an SMS message to his homeland: “We have been captured.” And then they sounded a serious alarm and urgently sent a ship of our Navy in pursuit of the hijacked vessel,” a “source in the special services” tells MK. Bah! An SMS arrived “to the homeland” (this “to the homeland” actually looks amazing as an SMS address), and the homeland, instead of informing the Swedish police, sends a fleet to intercept it across the Black Sea?

In a word, the further it goes, the more obvious it is: somewhere out there, in the Kremlin or nearby, there sits a certain collective Motherland - the owner of the cargo that the Arctic Sea was carrying. The homeland that receives SMS is distinguished by almost supreme omnipotence (it can control the Navy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the prosecutor’s office, isolate released sailors, get eight painted morons from somewhere), but at the same time the owner of the cargo has found himself in such a puddle and is so confused in his testimony that Really, it would be better if he chewed than spoke.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

Meanwhile, it is not at all difficult to understand what happened to the Arctic Sea - to do this, it is enough to restore the chronology of events. The result will be some kind of L equation - we will not calculate the values ​​of the variables in it, but the events themselves will become quite clear.

Arctic Sea left Kaliningrad with cargo X on board, belonging to a group of Russian security forces Y. What kind of cargo it was - missiles, weapons, nuclear materials - we can only guess, but it is obvious that it was heavy, because otherwise it would not “repairs” would have been needed to install it, and it would have been possible to drag it off the ship using a boat.

We will most likely never know what the names of the security forces were; but these security forces were Russian, not Malayan, for example, because the ship was being repaired in Kaliningrad, and not in Kuala Lumpur, and to cover up their failure, these security forces mobilized the Russian, not the Malayan Navy.

On July 24, Arctic Sea was intercepted off the Swedish island of Ålund by a special forces group from country Z. The special forces, demonstrating fantastic preparation - both physical and technological - captured the ship, but the boatswain sent an SMS to "Motherland".

We have already heard two explanations about this SMS: once on TV they explained that the sailor sent an SMS, the ship operator called him back, but he was reassured that “it’s a joke.” Another time, a “source from the special services” told MK that immediately after this SMS, the Motherland raised its Navy. Obviously, neither one nor the other reaction is normal. If a ship reports “we have been captured,” then it is difficult to ignore such a message, and even more difficult to raise the fleet. The easiest way is to inform the Swedes - and in half an hour the ship will be blocked in the Baltic Sea.

Meanwhile, the fleet was sent, according to a source from MK, but no one recruited the Swedish “02”. This suggests that the owners of the cargo could raise the Russian fleet, but did not want to see foreigners on the ship.

Meanwhile, the captured ship continued to sail under its own AIS Denmark Strait and English Channel, and over the next few days the Europeans could intercept it at any time. On July 29, a leak occurred: a message appeared that the ship had been hijacked by pirates.

This is a very interesting leak: let's take a closer look at it. On July 31st, “KP” published a heartbreaking article “Russian sailors were beaten with rifle butts in the middle of Europe.” In this article, Viktor Matveev, director of the ship’s operating company, talks about the details of the capture: the “broken English” of the invaders, their cruelty, torture of the crew.

“The attackers brutally tortured the captain...,” says Matveev, “They were very well versed in maritime affairs and radio electronics, and had the skills to use the navigation system. After the raid, buoys disappeared, which are thrown overboard in case of threat to the life of the crew - to mark the location of the ship. The robbers did not allow us to use the safety button... They asked the captain to indicate where the “black box” was. The captain refused to answer - and again received a blow with the butt. “If you don’t show it, we’ll throw you overboard!” - the bandits threatened. The captain was silent. But the invaders still found and disabled all means of signaling. A hard drive containing information was ripped out of the black box.”

It is remarkable that all the “details” about the behavior of the invaders that will appear after August 17 will copy Matveev’s words, and Matveev himself, on the contrary, will disappear from communication. “What a terrible thing is happening in the most seemingly calm and civilized corner of Europe!” – “KP” is indignant.

Telling a lot of details, Viktor Matveev claims that the pirates allegedly left the ship after 12 hours. He cannot clearly explain why the severely beaten sailors continued the voyage and did not seek help. After the fact, Matveev’s interview speaks for itself. This is an attempt by the owners of the cargo to scare off the invaders, while at the same time not giving the police a reason to enter the ship .

But the invaders were not afraid: on July 30, at 01.29 GMT, that is, after the leak, the ship turned off AIS and disappeared. This did not cause any noise.

On August 2, the TFR “Ladny” passed the Bosphorus. Apparently, the Russian Navy was indeed sent specifically to search for the Arctic Sea, but not “immediately after the abduction,” as a source in MK claims, but immediately after the signal disappeared.

On August 4, Arctic Sea did not arrive in Bejaia. But even then the owner did not make a fuss: the noise arose after August 11, after the publication in Mikhail Voitenko of a desperate letter from the wives of the missing sailors in the Maritime Bulletin. By this time the ship should have run out of fuel.

Despite the uproar, Russia did not include the Arctic Sea in its “notices to mariners” and did not accept the European Union’s proposals for joint searches. On the night of August 15, the Coast Guard of the Cape Verde Islands reported that the Arctic Sea was 740 nautical miles from Cape Verde, outside the waters. The next day, the Russian ambassador to Cape Verde denied this report, and in the meantime, Russian warships continued to sail to Cape Verde, where they met exactly with the Arctic Sea two days later.

The most interesting thing is what happened to the Arctic Sea and its cargo from July 30 to August 17. It was during these days that another ship could approach the Arctic Sea. The cargo was reloaded, and the special forces of State Z left the Arctic Sea along with the cargo.

In any case, as I already said, it is striking that pirates do not need to disable the ship’s AIS. If you're hoping for a ransom and you're holding the crew hostage, you don't care whether they know where you are or not. Whether AIS is turned on or off does not affect the persuasiveness of terrorists' demands. The disappearance of the ship is a sign of a completely different operation.

You may ask, why not just take over Arctic Sea and make a fuss? The answer to this question is that normal states do not exist to make noise, not to write letters to President Yushchenko, not for PR - but to solve problems. State Z, which seized Arctic Sea's cargo, solved the problem . It seized military equipment intended for its enemies to study and develop countermeasures, gaining leverage over Russia and allowing the Kremlin to save face. In the event of an open scandal, State Z would not take possession of weapon X, would lose leverage over Russia, and would have a mortal enemy in the form of a cornered, disgraced and enraged owner of weapon Y.

Actually, everything else is of little interest. Whether the TFR “Ladny” brought 8 painted morons with it or they were delivered by some other Russian ship that approached the Arctic Sea on the 15th or 16th is not important. It is important that these eight morons putting their feet on the table in the investigator’s office do not look like the invaders who were “very well versed in maritime affairs and radio electronics.” They are given to us on purpose so that we discuss them, and not events.

However, for now, only one thing can be stated for sure: Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov has nothing to do with the underground arms trade. If the owner of the weapon Y had taken the main Kremlin PR man as a share, Y would not have gotten into such nonsense.