Special to WorldTribune.com

MOSCOW — The Russian Navy has sent another warship to Syria during the
Sunni revolt against President Bashar Assad.

Officials said the Russian Navy has sent a destroyer to the eastern
Mediterranean as part of what was termed a “routine mission.” They said the
guided-missile destroyer would dock off the Syrian coast over the next week.

“The destroyer Smetlivy left Sevastopol at the end of last week and will operate in the Mediterranean,” Russian Navy spokesman Capt. Vyacheslav Trojachev said.

In a statement, Trojachev refused to provide the itinerary of the Navy destroyer, deployed by the Black Sea fleet. He said the naval mission in the Mediterranean was planned long ago.

But other officials said Smetlivy, a Kashin-class destroyer equipped with cruise missiles and torpedoes, would arrive in the Syrian port of Tartous by mid-April. Tartous is the only foreign base of the Russian Navy and contains some 600 Russian personnel.

“This will be a purely technical port call conducted by almost all
Russian Navy ships that exercise in the Mediterranean,” a senior Russian
Navy source told Russia’s Interfax news agency.

This would mark the second Russian Navy visit to Syria in as many
months. In March, the navy acknowledged that a supply ship arrived in
Tartous for a 10-day visit.

  600 Russian Navy personnel, Capt. Vyacheslav Trojachev, Kashin-class destroyer Smetlivy, Russia sends guided missile destroyer on ‘purely technical’ port call to Syria, Syrian port of Tartous