According to news reports the ‘missing ship’ wasn’t really missing as officials had good evidence of where it was the whole time. The secrecy was intended to protect the crew from a hijacking and the danger of being killed by those in control of the ship.
I’m still not sure what is really going on here. I’m not saying the story doesn’t pass the smell test, it is possible that they had to do what they had to do in order to protect the crew. But I would say that the story does seem a few days old and does seem to have been kept out of the fridge a bit too long.
There is some speculation that the ship may have been carrying a secret cargo of some sort. Given that it was connected with Russia and given the generally loose nature of their control over nuclear weapons, this is (to say the least) a disquieting possibility.
We shall see where the story ends.