Russian Foreign Ministry Hands In Note To Norwegian Ambassador In Moscow, Demanding Release Of Russian Ship Chernigov

The Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation has handed in a note to Norway's ambassador in Moscow Oyvind Nordsletten, urgently requesting that Norway should release the Russian fishing vessel Chernigov. The boat was detained on April 20 by Norway's coast guard in the area of Spitzbergen Island on suspicion of violating fishing rules. The note says, in particular, that "the Russian side cannot acknowledge as lawful and corresponding to international law the steps taken by Norwegian authorities against the Russian trawler, which was fishing in waters adjoining the Spitzbergen archipelago". The Russian Foreign Ministry recalled that the legal regime of this maritime area is regulated by the treaty on Spitzbergen of 1920 and, outside the limits of this treaty, by norms of international open-sea law.

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