MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Norwegian shipping company on Friday rejected an accusation from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, that it refused to rescue sailors from a sinking Russian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
Medvedev earlier on Friday had accused the Norwegian-flagged Oslo Carrier 3 of not coming to the aid of sailors on board the Ursa Major cargo ship, which carries out missions for the Russian Defence Ministry’s military construction arm.
The Ursa Major ran into trouble on Monday and then sank between Spain and Algeria with 14 of its crew of 16 taking to a lifeboat.
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Three explosions tore through the vessel breaching the hull in “an act of terrorism”, the ship’s owner, Oboronlogistika, told state news agency RIA on Wednesday.
Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said on Tuesday it had received a distress signal from the Ursa Major on Monday and that two vessels and a helicopter had been sent to the scene.
Medvedev accused the Oslo Carrier 3 of refusing to help when the ship was sinking.
“A Norwegian-flagged vessel, Oslo Carrier 3, refused to take aboard distressed Russian sailors from Ursa Major as it was sinking in the Mediterranean. What more is there to explain? That cannot be forgiven!,” Medvedev wrote on his official Telegram channel.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also weighed in, saying: “If indeed no assistance was rendered to those in distress at sea, this was contrary to all maritime laws and was an outrageous case that deserves total condemnation.”
But Oslo-based Bulkship Management AS, which lists the Oslo Carrier 3 as part of its fleet, rejected Medvedev’s accusation and said it did provide assistance.
“The MRCC (Spain’s Maritime Rescue Coordinating Center) ordered the Master not to take crew from vessel in distress on board as their rescue boat was on the way,” it said in a statement on Friday.
“In the meantime, the lifeboat was secured alongside our vessel until the rescue boat arrived. The weather was good, none of the crew in the lifeboat were injured and there was no imminent danger to them.”
It published two photographs of the lifeboat alongside the Oslo Carrier 3 in what looked like calm waters and a Spanish vessel then towing it away.
Medvedev, Russia’s former president and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, had cast the Norwegian vessel’s alleged behaviour as part of a wider pattern of anti-Russian actions from Europe which he said Moscow would need to punish “by all means available”, including hybrid ones.
Finnish authorities on Thursday seized a ship carrying Russian oil in the Baltic Sea on suspicion it damaged an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia a day earlier, and that it also damaged or broke four internet lines.
“From our side we are investigating grave sabotage,” said Robin Lardot, director of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; additional reporting by Dmitry Antonov; editing by Jason Neely)
