MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. The allegations Russian ships are involved in weapons smuggling, published by the Danish daily Information, have nothing to do with the reality, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in the social network VKontakte on Friday.
On November 6, the newspaper claimed that the Russian ship The Sparta III, en route from St. Petersburg to Hanoi, secretly carried a batch of weapons through the country’s territorial waters.
"The newspaper claims that the Russian crew had intentionally refrained from notifying Denmark the ship was carrying military cargoes. The Danish media makes references to some anonymous experts in order to spawn Russian weapons smuggling fakes. They also claim that other Russian ships transport weapons secretly, using false documents as a cover."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the Danish Defense Ministry was the first to respond to that falsehood.
"The Defense Ministry promptly published a commentary to dismiss Information’s claims. Danish military officials explained to the public at large the ABCs of international shipping rules. The open sea corridors the ships mentioned in the publication used were international waters, and the sole place where the Danish authorities were to be notified of the nature of the cargo was the Great Belt Strait," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry recalled that the Danish Defense Ministry stressed there had been no violations by the Russian ship of the rules of providing data to the international automated identification system (AIS).
"In full conformity with international rules the crew of the Russian ship disclosed the necessary information before sailing through the Big Belt Strait. The Danish Defense Ministry told the newspaper its journalists had committed a number of flaws in their inquiries and comments. The data provided for the AIS includes the ship’s name, type and route, while there is no requirement for disclosing information about the cargo," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.