Russians may be smarter than you think

Another explanation for the Russian ship mystery is that it was a decoy/counterintelligence operation to identify any 'dual loyalist' Jews in the Russian government who might be tipping off the Israelis to any Russian military sales to the Middle East. All other explanations fail to account for the fact that it was the Russians who made a big deal out of this, hardly likely if the cargo of this unknown ship was embarrassing to them. A few 'accidents' and the Russian security problem is cleaned up.