Russian navy to hold exercises in Mediterranean

Russian warships from the Arctic Ocean and the Black Sea will take part in exercises in the Mediterranean.

The RIA Novosti state news agency reported Thursday, citing a Russian navy source.

"In the Mediterranean Sea, an attack group of the Northern Fleet will meet an attack group of the Black Sea Fleet led by the guided missile cruiser Moskva," the source in navy headquarters was quoted as saying.

"They will carry out bilateral exercises, simulating a naval battle between two attack groups," he added.

A Russian navy spokesman declined to comment about the report.

The RIA Novosti source did not specify when the exercises would take place but said the Northern Fleet ships, based in the Arctic port of Severomorsk, would leave in November and spend three months on their travels.

He also said the missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, would dock in the Sicilian port of Messina.

The Moskva was one of a number of Black Sea Fleet vessels involved in Russia's controversial war with Georgia in August.

The report of the Mediterranean exercises comes a month after a different flotilla of Russian warships, also from the Northern Fleet, left for joint exercises to be held with the Venezuelan navy in the Caribbean in November.