Russia seizes 3 pirate ships off Somalia

[Fred Vloo]

A Russian warship has captured three pirate vessels off Somalia, news agencies quoted the Russian navy as saying on Friday.
The nuclear-powered warship, Peter the Great, also detained 10 pirates on the boats, Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the Russian navy as saying.
Pirates from Somalia target merchant ships sailing through the busy Gulf of Aden, which connects Europe and Asia via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
Navies from several different countries -- including the United States, Britain, India and Russia -- now patrol the sea off the unstable Horn of Africa to deter pirates.
On Thursday, the U.S. navy said it had detained nine pirates.
   
A Russian nuclear-powered cruiser has captured  10 Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean armed with grenade launchers, automatic  rifles and landmines, a navy spokesman said Friday.
The nuclear cruiser Pyotr Veliky has detained three small pirate boats,"  said Igor Dygalo, adding that 10 armed men of Somali citizenship were seized in  the operation Thursday.
The pirates had been spotted by the cruiser's helicopter southeast of the  Yemeni island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean.
It was visually established how weapons were being dumped from the boats  into the sea," Dygalo said in a separate statement.
He added that the navy managed to confiscate grenade launchers, automatic  rifles, landmines and 500 grammes of a "narcotic substance," among other  things.
The news of the Somali pirates' detention comes as the crew of a Ukrainian  ship captured by Somali pirates arrived home at Kiev airport on Friday after a  19-week hijacking ordeal.
The MV Faina, released last week, docked Thursday in Mombasa with its  exhausted crew of 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and one Latvian and controversial  cargo of tanks and munitions.
The Russian military prosecutors were now investigating the pirates' case  adding it would be then up to the Russian foreign and justice ministries to  determine their fate.

[Morten]

I think it is wonderful that Russia, China and India is going into the hunt for these people! They have a somewhat harder approach to this problem than the western navies! Maybe they can put a little fear in these people, as obviously, the western navies haven't really been able to do that!