MOSCOW — January 8, 2014 — Having just quieted the furor over its seizure of a Greenpeace International ship in the Arctic, Russia is embroiled in a new dispute with the environmental organization, this time over a Russian fishing trawler accused of poaching in coastal waters off Senegal.
The Oleg Naydenov, a Russian-owned fishing boat, was seized by the Senegalese military on Saturday and taken to the port of Dakar, accused of trawling in the country’s exclusive economic zone.
Senegal’s Fishing Ministry has demanded more than $800,000 in fines, while the Russian government has called for a diplomatic resolution to the standoff.
With talks repeatedly delayed in Senegal through Wednesday evening, the Russian government has blamed Greenpeace for the troubles. Officials in Moscow say the group encouraged Senegal to detain the boat and forced “Senegal to act according to Greenpeace press releases.”
Just three weeks ago, Russia amnestied 30 crew members aboard the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise who had been detained for more than three months after staging a maritime protest against Russia’s first offshore oil rig in the Arctic.
Read the full story at the New York Times