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Let's analyze the situation.
A group of pirates seize a ship supposedly carrying some $1.6 million worth of timber. Of course, they can't sell the timber through normal channels. But wait! They can sell it, log by log on the street. Suuuure they can.
OK, the pirates seized the ship by mistake. Then, after realizing that they had what was, to them, a worthless cargo, they stayed with the seized ship, knowing that the Russian KGB successor wouldn't storm the ship. [The Russian KGB successor doesn't give a damn about hostages. If you seize hostages and execute them when the Russians try to rescue them, the Russians deal harshly with the hostage takers. The Russian idea of interrogation STARTS with torture.]
So, the pirates didn't seize a cargo of timber, which is essentially worthless to them. We're then left with the puzzle of what was in the cargo. They don't ship oil on ships of the type of the Arctic Sea. If the cargo were gold or diamonds, type of thing, the cargo would have gone on board a Russsian warship. So, we arrive at the conclusion that the Arctic Sea was carrying something of high value that a Russian warship couldn't carry. The only thing of high value that a Russian warship couldn't carry would be something where the political cost would be too high.
We then arrive at the inescapable conclusion that the Arctic Sea was carrying illicit weapons, for an unacceptable political destination. Russia openly sells weapons, including sophisticated weapons systems to any number of countries around the world. Thus we have the Arctic Sea carrying a cargo to North Korea or Iran. If the cargo were for North Korea, it would have been shipped via the Pacific Ocean.
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