MOSCOW. July 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The Alaed cargo vessel carrying Mi-25 helicopters repaired for Syria, is sailing from Murmansk to St. Petersburg and then might head toward the Far East.
The Alaed vessel is expected to arrive in St. Petersburg on July 17. After that it could be loaded additionally and sent to the Far East, according to the website of the FEMCO company, which owns the cargo ship.
Meanwhile, the port surveillance service of the Murmansk port administration, which MV Alaed left on July 10, told Interfax earlier that the Alaed cargo ship was heading to Kaliningrad.
"The vessel left on July 10 in the Baltic direction, for Kaliningrad," a source said.
In June 2012, the vessel was carrying repaired helicopters to Syria. However, the vessel was stopped off the coast of Scotland after the British insurance company, Standard Club, announced that it tore up the contract and accused the vessel of shipping weapons to Syria.
On June 18, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph wrote about the ship carrying helicopters to Syria. Russian Mi-25 attack helicopters purchased from Moscow during the Soviet period were returning to Syria after undergoing maintenance at a facility near Kaliningrad, according to the newspaper.
It was also reported that the vessel was carrying air defense weaponry. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station: "The ship was carrying air defense systems which can only be used to counter outside aggression and by no means against peaceful demonstrators, and yes, it did carry three repaired helicopters."
The Mi-25 helicopters, which are due to return to Syria after being repaired, are still on board the Alaed vessel, which is on its way from the port of Murmansk to another Russian port, Rosoboronexport said in a statement obtained by Interfax-AVN on Friday.
Media reports that the repaired Mi-25 helicopters could be on board the warships sailing into the Mediterranean Sea are untrue, the company said.