IVAN RUDNY flew from St. Petersburg to Murmansk on Sunday evening. At the airport he was met by his wife and friends. The sailor said to journalists that he is healthy and they [pirates] treated him good as a whole, although it he was quite poorly fed on rice, pasta, and given water. He was kept prisoner in a mangrove forest in the jungle, in a cabin, where it was impossible to escape, reports ‘RIA Novosti’.
“It was hard to sit idle. But I showed sociability, opened a dialogue”, – said Rudny, smiling at questions from journalists, “that’s right? from the pirates?” – “That’s right with them”, said the sailor.
He admits now that he felt fear, especially in the early days. Rudny said he knew that pirates demanded ransom for him. “It’s their job. It’s their life,” – said Ivan, without specifying how much money the kidnappers demanded.
“It’s impossible – to get away from them. They look very scary, these pirates. Not like in the movies. They are especially dressed, very desperate, with them it is better not to argue,” – admitted the sailor, adding that at the beginning of his captivity there was a danger of the situation, but then it was without incident.
On release of the sailor, the Russian Embassy in Nigeria said on March 25. Ivan Rudny was captured by Nigerian pirates on February 23 from the French vessel Bourbon Liberty 251.
The Nigerian Navy conducted a rescue operation to free the captured vessel dispatched a task force, NNS Centenary, which rescued the ship at about 1400 LT on Wednesday, but the pirates managed to capture two crew members, including one Russian.
Since that time, there were reports about the death of Russian sailors, but they were denied.
