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Sunday, Apr. 6, 2003, 2:27 PM Moscow Time
SEVASTOPOL. April 6 (Interfax) - The Russian Black Sea Fleet's tanker Shakhtyor left its base in Sevastopol on Sunday and sailed for the Indian Ocean, where joint Russian-Indian naval exercises will be held in May.
"The tanker and a large landing ship will be the first to pass through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles," a spokesman for the Black Sea Fleet headquarters told Interfax on Sunday.
Then the flagship of the Black Sera Fleet, the missile cruiser Moskva, and the patrol boats Pytlivy and Smetlivy, will be clear of this zone.
"By April 11, the entire squadron will have reached the Mediterranean Sea," he said.
Through the Suez Canal, the ships will enter the Indian Ocean and meet with ships of the Pacific Fleet off the Socotra Island.
Earlier on Sunday, the large anti-submarine ships Marshal Shaposhnikov and Admiral Panteleyev, and the tanker Vladimir Kolechitsky of the Russian Pacific Fleet left their base in Vladivostok and sailed for the Indian Ocean to participate in Russian-Indian naval maneuvers
Sunday, Apr. 6, 2003, 9:17 PM Moscow Time
MOSCOW. April 6 (Interfax) - The Iraqi ambassador to Russia declined to comment on an incident on Sunday in which four or five people were injured as a convoy of Russian Embassy diplomats and journalists came under fire near Baghdad.
"All the comments will come tomorrow," Abbas Khalaf told Interfax after a day of unsuccessful attempts to contact him by telephone.
Khalaf and U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow were summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry after the incident but the Iraqi diplomat declined to comment on his visit to the ministry as well