"Peter the Great" in 2009 was the first in the Russian Navy to catch Somali pirates
MOSCOW, Nov 13 - RIA Novosti. The crew of the heavy nuclear missile cruiser "Peter the Great" became the first in the modern history of the Russian navy to catch Somali pirates - it happened on February 13, 2009. Then the crew was performing the tasks of a long-distance hike and was already supposed to return home, but received a distress signal from the Ocean Diamond cargo ship, helped him get out of the pirate-prone area and returned in an attempt to find the pirates who attacked the cargo ship. A direct participant in those events, who was an active officer of the Russian Navy in 2009, told RIA Novosti that the pirates were then caught, interrogated and eventually handed over to a Yemeni Coast Guard ship. The pirates' boats and their weapons were delivered to the Northern Fleet in a discharged state, and the ammunition was drowned.
The starting point of the Russian anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden is considered to be November 12, 2008, when the Russian patrol ship "Intrepid" together with the British Navy frigate Cumberland repelled two pirate attacks on the Danish vessel Powerful. Before that, in October 2008, the Russian Foreign Ministry appealed to the Transitional Government of Somalia to obtain the status of a "cooperating state", which provided Russian sailors with a legal basis for combating Somali pirates.
In the episode with the first capture of Somali pirates by Russian sailors, it is worth noting that neither the purpose of the ship nor the tasks of that campaign initially assumed anti-piracy activities. But it was on that trip that the cruiser of the Northern Fleet prevented the seizure of the Ocean Diamond cargo ship ("Ocean Diamond") and an Iranian fishing vessel by Somali pirates.
Saving the "Ocean Diamond"
According to the officer, "Peter the Great" was carrying out the tasks of a long-distance hike, which was already coming to an end, part of the route ran along the Indian Ocean. In early 2009, the cruiser called at Cape Town in South Africa, after which it ascended to the Yemeni island of Socotra in the Gulf of Aden near the Horn of Africa. From there, the ship went to India, after which it headed back to Socotra, from which the North Sea sailors had to return home through the Suez Canal.
At that time, there were several Russian ships in the region - the Peter the Great itself, one of the large anti-submarine ships and a tanker of the Pacific Fleet (TOF). At Socotra, the ships were supposed to gather in one detachment.
Next, a Russian inspection team with officers and an interpreter landed on a cargo ship, made an inspection, interviewed the Ocean Diamond crew members. After that, it was decided to escort the cargo ship on the route to India through the pirate-prone area. The very place where the cargo ship was attacked was located about 200 kilometers east of the coast of Africa.
"During the night we accompanied them and early in the morning, at about 6 a.m., we took them out of the area, then the cargo ship continued on its route. The senior on the campaign, Admiral Sidenko, then commander of the Tikhokensk fleet, decided to return to the point where the cargo ship was attacked and try to find these pirates. The ship went on a return course to Africa," the source said.
Pirate Hunting
"Two hours before the approach to the point, we lifted a Ka-27PS helicopter with marines. After an hour of flight, several small boats were found in one area. Getting closer, we saw the following picture: a slow-moving wooden fishing vessel under the Iranian flag, two high-speed boats approaching it at high speed. Behind them, at a distance, there was another larger boat," the officer said.
First, the helicopter flew around a large boat.
"There we saw two people who depicted a stand with their hands raised, like "we give up." Then two high-speed boats flew around - there were four people on them, on one of them they saw a boarding ladder and canisters, presumably with fuel," the interlocutor clarifies.
When the helicopter caught up with these boats, they slowed down. At the same time, the fishing vessel apparently did not notice the chase at all and continued to follow its course. The helicopter began circling over the area and controlled the actions of pirate boats.
"They grouped themselves at the third larger vessel, let's say - the "mother ship", tied up two of their boats, moved onto it, tried to throw something overboard. "Peter the Great" was still an hour away. Ten people on board a large ship stuck some sticks on the sides of the vessel, imitating fishing with fishing rods," the officer explained.
Next, a second helicopter rose from the cruiser for observation, and the first helicopter returned to the cruiser, because fuel was already running out. Finally, when the Peter the Great approached, boats with inspection groups of Marines were lowered from it.
Irrefutable evidence
"Their task was already to land on pirate ships, to ensure that no one resisted there. The pirates were lifted aboard the cruiser, immobilized, and the inspection of the pirate boats began directly by a group consisting of several marines, a representative of the military investigation department of the Northern Fleet and a representative of the military prosecutor's office of the Northern Fleet," the officer says.
He clarified that it is standard practice when legal specialists are seconded personnel to the field headquarters, they monitor the observance of law and order in long-distance campaigns.
According to the officer, the inspection began with a "mother boat".
"The sleeping and engine compartments were found there. In the sleeping compartment there were a dozen mattresses, under one of which lay a magazine from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. On the deck there were several 200-liter barrels of fuel, an improvised bonfire in a cut-off barrel, bags of rice, flour, sugar. In the bags we found several hidden knives, a compact modern satellite phone, a Garmin GPS navigator and several bags with some powders, presumably narcotic substances," the interlocutor clarifies.
Then the Russian sailors examined the motor boats "moored" to the "mother ship".
"At the bottom of each of them were several grenade launcher shots. The boats themselves were with powerful Yamaha engines - that is, they were clearly not fishermen. In the bow parts we found lockers, in which we found equipped Kalashnikov assault rifles of non-Russian production, one German G3 rifle, a grenade launcher, several "cats". There was a boarding ladder on one of the boats, as we noticed from the air," the source said.
The fate of pirates
After the inspection, the high-speed boats were hoisted aboard the Peter the Great (then they were delivered to the Northern Fleet), the weapons in a discharged state were also delivered to the Northern Fleet, and the ammunition was drowned, since their condition was not clear, and "they did not expose the cruiser to the risk of their possible detonation."
"With the help of an interpreter who spoke Arabic and African dialects, a survey was conducted of these 10 pirates on board the cruiser. They showed that everyone hails from one of the villages on the Somali coast. They were kept on board the Peter the Great for several more days, after which they were transferred to a large anti-submarine ship of the Pacific Fleet, from which they were already transferred to a ship of the Yemeni Coast Guard," the officer said.
According to him, the Russian sailors informed the Yemenis that these persons were suspected of piracy, handed over photos and the collected evidence base.
"The fate of the pirates is unknown to us. I can only say that in Yemen they were imprisoned for piracy for long terms, more often from 10 years or more, and there were precedents with the execution of pirates," the agency interlocutor summed up.
