A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday that the Norwegian authorities had gone too far in their handling of the Russian fishing vessels arrested near the Spitzbergen archipelago this week. "Even if Norway has reasons to say the vessels had deviated somewhat from the existing fishing regulations in that area, the Norwegian authorities' actions look excessive, whereas the sanctions they imposed do not correspond to the circumstances," Mikhail Kamynin said.
The Foreign Ministry, in cooperation with other Russian agencies and organizations involved, is conducting an inquiry into the incident.
On Monday, the Norwegian Coast Guard detained the fishing boat Kapitan Gorba | Ads |  |
chev and the transport vessel Dmitry Pokramovich near the island of Medvezhy in the Barents Sea after the boats entered a 12-mile exclusive fishing zone without permission. The Norwegian authorities are accusing the ships' crews of unauthorized fish reloading in Norway's territorial waters.
The latest arrests come in the wake of last week's drama involving the Elektron trawler, which the Norwegians pursued across the Barents Sea for five days after accusing the Russian crew of violating Norwegian fishing regulations.
MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti)
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