MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev believes that Norway overstepped its jurisdiction when it detained Russian fishing boats. "I believe that the Norwegian side has overstepped its jurisdiction. Based on international practice, I believe we should say this loud and clear," the minister said at a news conference in Moscow Saturday.
At the same time, Gordeyev stressed that Russia was ready to work with the Norwegian side in cracking down on poachers and unscrupulous fishing companies.
Earlier, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said that the Norwegian authorities had gone too far in their handling of the Russian fishing vessels arrested near the Spitsbergen archipelago this week.
The Norwegian Coast Guard detained the fishing boat Kapitan Gorbachev 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 on October 24. The Norwegian authorities accused the ships' crews of unauthorized fish reloading in Norway's territorial waters. The latest arrests came 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.
