MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy's Ladny frigate will provide security for the Arctic Sea vessel until it is handed over to its owners, a high-ranking military official said on Wednesday.
The Arctic Sea vessel was originally expected to dock at the port of Las Palmas, the capital of Spain's Canary Islands, in order to be handed over to its Maltese owners from September 17 through September 18. However, the Maltese authorities unexpectedly refused to take part in the handover of the ship, and the vessel remains anchored 25 kilometers offshore.
"The Ladny frigate is located off the Canary Islands," the source told RIA Novosti. "The vessel will provide the Arctic Sea ship with security and navigational safety until all the legal procedures concerning the transfer of the ship to its owners have been completed," he said.
The Maltese-flagged and Russian-crewed vessel, officially carrying lumber from Russia to Algeria, was reportedly boarded by a group of eight men on July 24. Officials later said it had disappeared in the Atlantic. It was freed off Cape Verde on August 16 by a Russian warship.
The ship has been the focus of media speculation, with some reports speculating it was carrying Russian S-300 air defense systems to Iran or Syria. Moscow has denied the reports.
A spokesman for the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said last week that investigators who searched the ship had not found any "compromising" cargo on board.
