Self-exiled Maritime Reporter To Work From Thailand

[churchill]

Maritime reporter Mikhail Voitenko, who fled Russia after receiving threats for his suggestions about the cargo of the hijacked merchant vessel Arctic Sea, has moved to Bangkok from Istanbul.

On Friday, the editor of the online Maritime Bulletin-Sovfrakht told CNN the cargo ship might have been involved in “some secret kind of shipment”.

“I don't think that this was a criminal cargo or drugs. I think it's something more important or dangerous,” Voitenko said.

On Thursday, Voitenko was reported to have left for Turkey because of intimidation. On his website he said that he is on a “working visit”. Later, though, the journalist confirmed to several media outlets that he was forced to flee, noting at the same time he will continue to work, as all he needs are his laptop and Internet connection.

Meanwhile, Sovfrakht have said in a corporate press release that they received a phone call from Voitenko informing them of his resignation as chief editor of the maritime bulletin.

The self-exiled reporter later denied his dismissal.

The Arctic Sea was captured in the Baltic Sea by alleged pirates on July 24, who forced the crew to change course and disable communications equipment. She was recaptured by the Russian Navy near Cape Verde on August 17.

Voitenko was the first to break the news about the seizure on August 8. He regularly published updates about the vessel on his website. He also made the suggestion that the cargo ship might have been carrying “something other than timber

http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-0...itor-flees.html

[churchill]

Journalist flees in fear of his life ... vowing to reveal secrets of disappearing cargo ship

RUSSIA: Writer’s allegations include missile smuggling to Iran, Mossad, the mafia – and a cover-up by the Kremlin

From John Follett in Moscow

HE WAS the man who told the world a previously-obscure cargo ship called the Arctic Sea had disappeared at sea, Bermuda Triangle-style, along with its Russian crew. His allegations sounded as if they came from a cold war spy thriller: illegal arms smuggling, an international incident, and a cover-up involving the Kremlin and Mossad.

Now, Mikhail Voitenko, a maverick journalist and respected maritime expert, has fled Russia and launched a one-man campaign to uncover and publicise the truth about the murky incident.

Voitenko, who says he fears for his life, has reportedly set himself up in Thailand, and says he'll stop at nothing.

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"I've got nothing to lose. If I need to write more I will," he wrote on his website yesterday.

It's been an eventful week for the man who seems to be able to find out things that powerful interests would rather remain undisclosed.

A man thought to be an FSB intelligence officer called Voitenko last Tuesday, warning he'd offended "very serious people" and should leave the country. The unidentified caller said he had only hours to act.

Fearing for his life, Voitenko flew to Turkey and from there, it seems, to Thailand.

"I've lost everything," Voitenko said in a phone interview afterwards. "Thank God I have no family or property in Russia."

Since that phone call, he's parted company with his employer, a major Russian shipping company, in acrimonious circumstances. Voitenko ran an authoritative online maritime news service for the firm.

He's since made a new allegations, accusing the Russian foreign ministry of lying about the Arctic Sea incident, and his former employer of lying about him. He's also publicised fresh details of the case that reinforce his contention that a huge cover-up is under way.

Voitenko broke the news of the missing ship on August 8. The Maltese-flagged Arctic Sea was allegedly carrying low-value timber from Finland to Algeria.

A blizzard of sometimes contradictory and often sensational news followed. A group of armed men posing as Swedish police had apparently hijacked the ship in the Baltic Sea, beaten its Russian crew, searched the vessel, then left.

Much was unexplained. The alleged hijacking took place on July 24, yet news of it didn't surface for two weeks despite the fact that the ship's communications system had been disabled.

Worried relatives of the missing crew tipped off Voitenko about the ship's fate and he then sounded the alarm, breaking a story that made headlines around the world.

Soon after he released the news, the Kremlin ordered the Russian Navy to scour the world to find the missing cargo ship.

A small armada from Russia's Black Sea Fleet including nuclear submarines and warships was dispatched, evoking memories of Hollywood blockbuster The Hunt For Red October. The Russian air force and its military satellites were also mobilised.

The Kremlin says the Russian Navy found the ship off the west African coast on August 17. A day later the navy arrested eight men, accused of being the hijackers, on board the ship. They are now in a Moscow jail awaiting trial on piracy and kidnapping charges.

Voitenko believes the Russian Navy found the vessel several days earlier than it officially claimed, and used the extra time to cover up an incident that could embarrass the Russian government.

Though he's been coy about spelling out his theory, Voitenko has made it clear in interviews that he thinks the ship was carrying a secret military cargo.

He and other experts have speculated that this might have been a consignment of arms bound for either Iran or Syria and that Israel's intelligence service, Mossad found out about it, intercepted it, and told the Kremlin to clean up the mess - quietly.

Voitenko believes the arms smugglers were Russian mafia elements with links to senior Russian government officials. "It was half-private, half-state," he says.

It's a theory given credence by unnamed military sources in the Russian press and by the fact that before it was allegedly hijacked the Arctic Sea docked at the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad for repairs. The port, the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Sea fleet, is a notorious smuggling haven favoured by Russian organised-crime groups.

A senior Russian naval official told daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda he thought the smugglers had hidden missiles beneath the timber and that they were working "behind the back" of the Russian government.

The weapons they procured were so advanced, he added, and their Middle Eastern customers so politically sensitive, that the Kremlin had to intervene to stop an international scandal.

But, like so much else in Russia, the full story of what really happened is likely to be suppressed - in the interests of state security.

http://www.sundayherald.com/international/...2529352.0.0.php

[simon43]

.... has moved to Bangkok from Istanbull...

..... noting at the same time he will continue to work, as all he needs are his laptop and Internet connection

[\quote]

... and work permit

Simon

[Scott]

Thailand.....known for freedom of the press, I guess.