RUSSIA SAYS NO NAVY SHIPS WERE PRESENT IN AREA OF FERRY DISASTER
TALLINN, Sept 29, BNS - Neither Russia nor any other country had its military vessels in the area of the Baltic Sea where the Estonia ferry sank on the night of Oct. 28, officials at the Russian navy's security department said.
The senior officer on duty at the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Sea fleet, Alexander Gorbachuk, said no ships or submarines of the fleet had been in the area where the disaster happened.
Gorbachuk added that after the pullout of Russian troops from the Baltics, they were no longer "in charge of the region of the Baltic Sea where the Estonia sank.
The Baltic Sea fleet's two guard ships and a tanker, which he said were the only vessels Russia had on the sea at that time, had been in the North Sea outside the straits of Skagerrak.
Because of the storm no other vessel left the bases in Kaliningrad or Kronshtad, the officer said.
Why is the Russian navy's security department denying anything at all? This is already the day after the sinking and nobody had in any way said that the Russian navy could be involved in the accident.