Observers have suggested the ship was hijacked, possibly because of a Russian commercial dispute.
The Maltese-flagged ship, the Arctic Sea, has a 15-strong Russian crew.
Carryingtimber reportedly worth $1.8m (£1.1m), it sailed from Finland and hadbeen scheduled to dock in the Algerian port of Bejaia on 4 August.
The ship was last sighted in the Bay of Biscay on 30 July, according to the Russian media....
MikhailVoitenko, editor of Russia's Sovfracht maritime bulletin, said the shipmay have been boarded because it was carrying a valuable, unknowncargo.
"We have to remember that before loading in Finland thevessel stayed for two weeks in a shipyard in Kaliningrad," he told theRussia Today TV channel.
"It seems some third party didn't wantthis transit to be fulfilled so they made this situation highlysophisticated and very complicated."
But the head of the ship's operator, Nikolai Karpenkov, dismissed speculation that there might be a mystery cargo on board.
Hetold Itar-Tass that the ship had been checked when leaving Kaliningradafter repairs, and in Finland, where he said nothing illegal orsuspicious had been found.
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