Wives of Arctic Sea sailors wrote letter to Putin

04.10.2009
Open letter to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin written by wives of Arctic Sea cargo ship sailors was published on Maritime Bulletin – Sovfrakht website on Oct 4.

In their compellation women ask Premier "to return our husbands back home immediately". Authors of address say that 49 days passed after release of the vessel by Russian Navy, but their husbands are still at the ship informationally isolated, although all investigative activities aboard Arctic Sea had been finished on Sept 16.

"The destination point of the ship is uncertain. Our husbands need urgent medical and psychological aid; they have been in full informational isolation for 74 days!!! You are requested to promote the immediate return of our husbands home as yet they're alive", says the letter signed by Elena Zaretskaya, Viktoria Shumik, Irina Kuznetsova and Lidia Volova.

Cargo vessel Arctic Sea under Maltese flag with 15 Russians aboard sailed from Finland to Algeria in July. Mikhail Voitenko, at that time editor in chief of Maritime Bulletin, declared disappearance of the ship in August; his message pushed the story to capture the headlines, and law enforcement authorities of several countries, Interpol and the military were called to searching.

On August 18 Russian authorities declared that Arctic Sea was detected 300 miles off Cape Verde Islands. Except for crewmembers, the citizens of Russia, Latvia and Estonia were found aboard; they were apprehended on suspicion of vessel hijacking. At the same time the suppositions appeared in media that illegal cargo might be carried aboard – drugs or weapons. However, investigation carried out by Russian experts showed no unauthorized cargo aboard – only wood and timber. Since the investigators left Arctic Sea, the ship has not been transferred to the owner.

Source: Lenta.ru, photo: Arctic Sea (©AFP)