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Originally Posted by Matt Wiser
Weren't the tanks sold by Russia to the Kenyans? If so, the Russians are still liable for the shipment until they reach the intended end users.
The Russians have a reputation for ruthlessness in matters of terrorists/insurgents/pirates; when four Russians were kidnapped in Beirut in 1987 (and one murdered), the GRU found the brother of the terrorist group's leader, and sent him back to the family-one piece at a time, until the three other Russians were set free. A day's worth of deliveries was sufficient enough to induce compliance. Another story from the late '80s had a Soviet destroyer with Naval Infantry aboard returning from an Angolan deployment when they got an SOS call from a frieighter off the Nigerian coast that had been attacked by pirates. The destroyer responded, and found a large freighter with a small coaster moving in alongside to send a boarding party aboard. The destroyer shelled the coaster (pirate vessel) and sent the Naval Infantry aboard. Bottom line, frieighter rescued, pirate vessel scuttled, and the pirates were tried under Soviet Military Law in a summary court-martial for piracy. The accused were found guilty and shot.
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I didn't know about the second story (pirate) but that doesn't surprise me; very Russian. At the time of the first, however, I knew a few French military who were found of the Russian dealing ways in Beirut. Actually, they were wishing we could have done the same.
By the way the tanks were not sold by Russia but by Ukraine. So expect the Russians to love the idea of sinking that ship and that may be why the US Navy is also chasing it (beside not liking the idea of having these tanks in islamist hands). Of course, I'm a little imaginative here but I bet the Russians would love to see Ukraine loose some money.
