Cargo Piracy Alert: Somali pirates capture Russian crew and British captain

Somalia barely functions as a country any more. As long as ship owners and insurance companies keep shelling out ransom money to brash pirates off the coast of Somalia, they will continue to attack ships and hold cargo and crew for money:

The owners made contact with the ship by radio telephone on Sunday afternoon, Adamson said.

The ship was on its way from Russia’s northern city of St Petersburg via Singapore to Russia’s Sakhalin island, an icy former prison colony on the country’s Pacific coast, where it was supposed to service the oil industry.

Ransom demands are normally determined by the size of the ship, its cargo and the nationalities of its crew, experts say.

In August, Danish media said Somali pirates freed a Danish cargo ship, the MV Danica White, and its five Danish sailors after a security company paid a $1.5 million ransom.