BEIJING, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - Two Russian vessels belonging to the Arctic Shipping Company have been released by Chinese authorities after the firm began to pay back money owed for repairs, a Russian diplomat in Shanghai said on Wednesday.

The Vasily Yan cargo ship and the Professor Voskresensky vessel have been undergoing repairs in the port of Shanghai since last September.

The 21 crew members on board the two ships, who have not been paid since April 2009, earlier appealed to the Russian president and prosecutor general for assistance.

"The debts are being paid off now, and so the ships have been released and their crews will finally be able to return home," Anton Gorelov, a deputy consul of the Russian consulate general in Shanghai, said.

The Vasily Yan will be sold for scrap to pay off the company's debts, he added.