'ESTONIA'-Russian ships in the area did not respond to distress calls

Russian ships in the area did not respond to distress calls or go to the place of the disaster

All traffic in the Baltic sea were plotted by radar during the night of the disaster. In spite of that there are some ships that have not been officially in the area. One of the ships, Russian Leonid Bykov, was reported in a strange maneuver outside Jussarö, quite close to the place of the accident. Leonid Bykov did not respond to the distress calls and did not go to the place of the accident.

Date: 29 Sep 1994
From today's Aamulehti, bottom corner of page 13:
On Wednesday night, an hour after "Estonia" had sunk, the coast guards of Jussarö lighthouse noticed a ship sailing off course towards underwater rocks. They tried to alert the crew with searchlights and radio messages in Finnish, Swedish and English. No response. The ship passed the lighthouse, averted the first rocks by sheer luck, then turned sharply to south and safety. After this radio contact was established and the captain of the "Leonid Bykov" explained that the fresh First Officer keeping watch didn't know any English but when radio messages continued had figured out that maybe he needed to wake up the captain (who had made the safety move).
Earlier this month another Russian vessel, "Volgoneft 4" was in a similar situation near Jussarö.

It is clear that it should have been possible for "Leonid Bykov" to come to assistance, while several Finnish cost guard vessels left from Jussarö shortly after the time of the accident.
"Leonid Bykov" is own by Moscow River Shipping, a company that according to "Ricano Plus, Russian Industry Analysis" have had no trading during 1994. The ship is a dry cargo ship of 4540 Dwt that was built during 1991.
The other ship, "Volgoneft 4" has not been found, but there are at least 74 other ships named "Volgoneft" with numbers from nothing to 301. All ships are tankers of approx. 4000 - 5000 Dwt, many are identical. They are own by either Volgotanker River Shipping or the Russian Government. Almost all the Volgoneft tankers are administrated by the "General State Supervisory Department for Communications in the Russian Federation, Ministry of Post and Telecommunications". A smaller number of the Volgoneft tankers are administrated from Panama by the "Ministerio de Hacienda y Tesoro, Dirección General de Marina Mercante, Departamento de Telecomunicacions Marítimas".
It is quite strange that these ships that are built as tankers would be run by Telecommunication Departments. It is also very strange that these ships have been operating in Finnish waters near Jussarö, and that they have been involved in strange maneuvers close to underwater obstacles. It is more likely that "Volgoneft 4" was training maneuvers in narrow waters maybe preparing for an escape with another ship later on.