I'm really not one for conspiracy theories, but with Ivan's current odd behaviour, nothing would surprise me.
We did the same in the cold war on trawlers out of Hull and "fisheries research" vessels in The Baltic, one notably crewed by an Oxbridge graduate with fluent Russian. Not a chap you'd expect to find bobbing up and down in sub-zero temperatures for the fun of it. He was the late Gordon Clough, news journalist with the BBC.
I recall talking to Capt Pyetan, a Dan Air 748 captain, Ian Lawrie, later of BMA, (but who served his time lugging freight on light twins at silly-o'clock), and they both revelled in the outrageously direct routings available for freighters in the middle of the night.
Hence, to see one stick to such a standard route at 0300 seemed strange.