MOSCOW, February 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy will continue its important duties in the seas and oceans of the world, Navy spokesman Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

"The Pyotr Veliky missile cruiser, after having completed joint naval exercises with India, has passed through the Suez Canal and is now in the Mediterranean Sea," Dygalo said.

He also said that the Northern Fleet's Admiral Levchenko destroyer had moored in the Syrian port of Tartus on February 23. The Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko are conducting operations in the North Atlantic, he continued.

Dygalo also said that the Admiral Vinogradov destroyer is continuing its anti-piracy operations in the Horn of Africa near Somalia.

Around 20 warships from the navies of at least 10 countries, including Russia, are involved in anti-piracy operations off Somalia, which after years of civil war, has no functioning government.