MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is setting up a permanent investigation mission in the Gulf of Aden to participate in international efforts to fight piracy at sea off Somalia, the chief investigator said on Friday.

"I signed a directive today on sending our investigators to the Somalia region, where they will open criminal cases and conduct probes into crimes committed by pirates in order to arrest them and put them on trial under Russian law," the head of the Investigation Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, Alexander Bastrykin, told reporters in Moscow.

He did not say where the investigators would be based.

Somalia has been without an effective government since the Revolutionary Socialist Party was overthrown in 1991. The internationally recognized federal government controls only the capital city of Mogadishu and part of central Somalia, and cannot effectively fight sea piracy in the region.

According to the United Nations, Somali pirates collected $150 million in ransom payments from ship owners last year, while overall losses from piracy were estimated at $13-16 billion, including the soaring cost of insurance and protection for vessels, as well as sending ships on longer routes to avoid high-risk areas.

The Russian Navy joined international anti-piracy efforts off Somali coast in October 2008. Three warships have so far participated in the mission - the Baltic Fleet's Neustrashimy (Fearless) frigate, and the Pacific Fleet's Admiral Vinogradov and Admiral Panteleyev destroyers.

The Pacific Fleet dispatched a new task force, comprising the Admiral Tributs destroyer with two helicopters, a salvage tug, a tanker, and a naval infantry unit, to the Gulf of Aden on June 29.