Today grain - tomorrow ?

The bulk freighter Professor Katsman was unloading in Leith harbour today, this is the vessel that caused significant furore at the UN in May last year when it was named as a moral blockade runner supporting the Assad regime - extract from Forbes below.

Vladimir Lisin, No. 41 on the Forbes billionaire list, says his company did not ship weapons to violence-wracked Syria and challenged accusers to provide the evidence.

Lisin owns Russian shipping company Universal Cargo Logistics Holding Company, which was alleged by Western media to have been involved in armed shipment deliveries to Syria.

A UCL Holding bulk cargo vessel named Professor Katsman, operated by JSC North-Western Shipping Company, which is part of UCL, allegedly delivered guns to Syria.

"It was a general cargo of non-military purpose featuring electrical equipment and repair parts (rotor blades) in containers and wooden crates," the company said in a statement Saturday, calling the reports "absurd speculations."