{"id":41070,"date":"2020-08-05T21:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/russian-businessmans-floating-bomb-behind-beirut-explosion-reports\/"},"modified":"2020-08-05T21:07:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T18:07:00","slug":"russian-businessmans-floating-bomb-behind-beirut-explosion-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/russian-businessmans-floating-bomb-behind-beirut-explosion-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"#Russian businessman\u2019s \u2018floating bomb\u2019 behind Beirut explosion: reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Russian businessman\u2019s \u2018floating bomb\u2019 behind Beirut explosion: reports<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n The massive stockpile of fertilizer that exploded this week in Beirut and killed at least 135 people was a known risk for seven years \u2014 and was even described as a \u201cfloating bomb\u201d by the crew of the Russian cargo ship that brought it to the port city in the first place, reports said.<\/p>\n

The 2,750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate \u2014 the explosive material used in terror attacks like Timothy McVeigh\u2019s 1995 bombing that killed 168 in Oklahoma City \u2014 unexpectedly arrived in Lebanon\u2019s capital in 2013 on a cargo ship that was supposed to be heading to Mozambique.<\/p>\n

The MV Rhosus, owned by Russian Igor Grechushkin, instead made an unscheduled stop \u2014 and was abandoned after the motorcycle-loving businessman went bankrupt, according to reports and officials.<\/p>\n

Grechushkin currently lives in Cyprus with his wife, Irina, while his 20-year-old son, Artyom, studies computer science<\/a> at Glasgow University in Scotland, The Siberian Times said.<\/p>\n

Neither the Khabarovsk-born businessman nor any of his family have commented about the alleged ties to the Beirut blast.<\/p>\n

His crew, mostly from Russia and Ukraine and flying under the Moldovan flag, had immedia<\/a>tely sounded the alarm, however \u2014 telling marine expert Mikhail Voitenko for a 2014 report that their cargo amounted to a \u201cfloating bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear why Grechushkin, who owned Teto Shipping, was carrying such a devastating load of ammonium nitrate \u2014 or exactly why the Rhosus stopped in Beirut, blaming unspecified mechanical issues.<\/p>\n

It became an instant legal scandal, however, with several crew \u2014 including the captain \u2014 stuck on it for months after Grechushkin \u201cabandoned\u201d them, according to a report by lawyers who thought for their release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe owner actually abandoned the vessel and crew. Salary is not paid, supplies are not purchased. The cargo owner refused the cargo,\u201d Voitenko, the maritime expert, also wrote in 2014.<\/p>\n

They said the ship was a \u201cfloating bomb, and the crew became hostage on the bomb,\u201d Voitenko wrote.<\/p>\n

Lebanese officials eventually seized the material that year, keeping it in the warehouse at the port that exploded Tuesday in what officials have compared to the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<\/p>\n

Repeated warnings were raised over the six years it was stored \u2014 including just six months ago when inspectors warned the seized material could \u201cblow up all of Beirut,\u201d sources told Reuters.<\/p>\n

Badri Daher, Director General<\/a> of Lebanese Customs, also told broadcaster LBCI on Wednesday that customs had sent six documents to the judiciary warning that the material posed a danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe requested that it be re-exported but that did not happ<\/a>en. We leave it to the experts and those concerned to determine why,\u201d Daher said.<\/p>\n

Another source said that \u201cnothing was done\u201d about the clear warnings \u2014 calling it \u201cnegligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ammonium nitrate, an odorless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertilizer, is a well-known danger \u2014 not just used in terror attacks but also the cause of numerous industrial explosions over the decades.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Massive<\/img><\/p>\n
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\n Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday. <\/p>\n

Marwan Tahtah\/Getty Images\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n \"TOPSHOT-LEBANON-BLAST\"<\/img><\/p>\n
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\n Fires burning at the port of Beirut after an explosion yesterday. <\/p>\n

Joseph Eid\/AFP via Getty Images\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n \"Lebanon<\/img><\/p>\n
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\n A wounded woman is evacuated after a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday. <\/p>\n

AP\/Hassan Ammar\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n \"Smoke<\/img><\/p>\n
\n
\n Smoke is seen after an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, yesterday. <\/p>\n

Talal Traboulsi via Reuters\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n Up Next\n <\/p>\n
\n \"\"<\/img><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

A federal grand jury in California has indicted Democratic mega-donor…
\n <\/article>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

These include at a Texas fertilizer plant in 2013 that killed 15, and another at a chemical plant in Toulouse, France in 2001 that killed 31 people but was accidental, Agence France-Presse noted.<\/p>\n

The fears were realized Tuesday, when a fire that started at Beirut\u2019s warehouse 9 spread to warehouse 12, where the ammonium nitrate was stored. The fire is feared to have been sparked by welders making repairs, while other sources told the Associated Press it may have been started by fireworks.<\/p>\n

Lebanon President Michel Aoun described the failure to deal with the stockpile of ammonium nitrate as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and said those responsible would face \u201cthe harshest punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Post wires<\/em>\n <\/div>\n

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If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Russian businessman\u2019s \u2018floating bomb\u2019 behind Beirut explosion: reports” The massive stockpile of fertilizer that exploded this week in Beirut and killed at least 135 people was a known risk for seven years \u2014 and was even described as a \u201cfloating bomb\u201d by the crew of the Russian cargo ship that brought it to the port…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49196],"class_list":["post-41070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-russian-businessmans-floating-bomb-behind-beirut-explosion-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}