Russian expert in 'hijacked' Mideast-bound ship case flees country

The Russian maritime expert who was among the first to raise the alarm about the mysterious disappearance of the Arctic Sea freighter said Thursday he has fled the country after receiving a threatening phone call.

Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of the online Maritime Bulletin-Sovfracht, posted an article about the ship's disappearance on Aug. 8. He later speculated that the ship might have been carrying a secret cargo, possibly weapons.

The Arctic Sea, which left Finland on July 21 with 15 Russian crew members and a cargo of timber, failed to arrive in Algeria on Aug. 4 as scheduled. The ship's signal had disappeared in the Atlantic in late July.

Russia sent naval vessels Aug. 12 to search for the ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Days later, the government said it had found the Arctic Sea off West Africa and arrested eight hijackers.

But many questions remain.

Russia took control of the Maltese-flagged freighter, which is now sailing toward a Russian port.

Voitenko said he received an anonymous phone call Tuesday night from someone who said he was fed up with Voitenko.

He told me: 'Mikhail, you made a big mistake when you made your announcement on Aug. 8,' Voitenko said, speaking by phone from Istanbul, Turkey.

TIME published an article this week in which the European Union's rapporteur on piracy told TIME Israel was likely behind the hijacking.

Admiral Tarmo Kouts was quoted as saying Israel probably intercepted the vessel, the Arctic Sea, as it carried a secret cargo of weapons to the Middle East.

"There is the idea that there were missiles aboard, and one can't explain this situation in any other way," he told the weekly news magazine, in an interview published Monday. "As a sailor with years of experience, I can tell you that the official versions are not realistic."

This theory, which Russian analysts put forward in the days after the Arctic Sea was rescued, TIME reported, has been vehemently denied by Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitri Rogozin, who was quoted as saying Kouts should stop "running his mouth."