E. A. ELKINA Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences sea pirates Keywords:, Gulf of Guinea, transnational crime 1" Two crew members were abducted and a third injured during a pirate attack off the west coast of Africa. Another person is still missing after eight armed men attacked a Dutch-owned cargo ship. The captain and mechanic were taken away on a speedboat, where the pirates escaped, robbing the crew. The Nigerian authorities are investigating." Such reports are increasingly appearing in the media and in the bulletins of agencies that monitor the safety of commercial shipping. This happens in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, which is becoming increasingly dangerous for navigation. Naturally, the attention of the Russian public was attracted by the report about the attack on a Greek tanker on August 28, 2012, where 23 crew members are our citizens. The pirates siphoned off 3 thousand tons of fuel and disappeared without touching the sailors. And on October 15, six Russians and an Estonian citizen were abducted during an attack on the French ship Bourbon Liberty 249, which served oil platforms on the shelf off the coast of Nigeria near the Niger Delta.2In June 2012, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Vice Admiral Viktor Chirkov, in an interview with RIA Novosti, spoke about the protection of civilian maritime navigation in the world's oceans and the fight against piracy.: "...At the direction of the Russian leadership and in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution, our Navy began protecting civilian shipping in the Gulf of Aden in October 2008. For four years now, Naval warships and support vessels have been making trips to this area of the World Ocean. ...During this time, not a single seizure of vessels that accompanied the ships of the Russian Navy was allowed. The security of 237 Russian citizens was ensured. We managed to prevent an attempt to capture one merchant ship... Pirate activity is recorded by our and international serv ... Read more