Nothing but sheer speculation by people who have no idea what they are talking about.
Most of the time, pirates aren't after the cargo, but the ransom to get the ship and crew back. It makes no sense for Russia to ship anything destined for Iran all the way around the European continent when they have direct access to Iran via the Caspian Sea and rail routes - a route they've historically used for stuff like this.
Brett
Someone with an ounce of common sense and critical thinking skills, thank the lord!
Fair enough and that does make more sense. I'm not necessarily agreeing with what's being said in the articles, I'm just saying that looking at the circumstances it seems that there's more than what we're being told about the situation. Also, there's been nothing mentioned of ransom.
How do you know?
A couple things that hurt the whole 'missile smuggling' story:
Why risk smuggling something through Finland, which also supposedly inspected ship?
Why take the long way around, past Israel of all places, when there is a 'protected' route straight to Iran across the Caspian?
The
M/V Arctic Sea is an awfully small ship to be carrying SA-10's (S-300's), where the hell are they going to put them with the timber? Remember, the missile aren't worth squat without all the support equipment like control vans, radars and launchers.
As corrupt as Russia is SA-10's are not something you can find at the local bazaar or being sold out the back gate at the local base. They are an important source of income and a significant capability that Russia keeps a close eye on.
Anything can be made a 'state secret' in Russia, it is not uncommon, especially when dealing when it comes to something embarrassing like some of their citizens involved in piracy.
And probably the biggest one, if Israel was supposedly involved the ship would almost certainly either be on the bottom of the sea or
paraded in front of the world's press. They certainly would not have let Russia take the ship and crew back home and do whatever they wanted with them.
