Russia has arrested eight people who it accused of hijacking the merchant ship Arctic Sea.
Defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that the hijackers included nationals from Russia, Estonia and Latvia.
He added that the crew was rescued without a shot being fired.
Russia's navy located the ship near the Cape Verde islands in the Atlantic Ocean yesterday.
The Maltese-registered, Finnish-chartered vessel departed Finland on 23 July for the Algerian port of Bejaia, where it had been due to dock on 4 August.
The 4,000-tonne bulk carrier with a 15-strong Russian crew went missing shortly after passing through the Dover Strait between France and Britain.
The ship was said to be carrying a €1.16m cargo of timber.
