MOSCOW, January 10. /ITAR-TASS/. The owner of the Russian Oleg Naidenov fishing trawler, which was seized by the Senegalese authorities on January 4, is ready to issue a bank guarantee to have the trawler released, head of Russia’s federal fisheries agency Andrei Krainy told journalists on Friday.

According to Krainy, such schemes are practiced in cases of economic disputes in the fishing sector. “Our ship owners win such lawsuits in more than a half of cases,” he noted.

He did not specify however the amount of a possible guarantee, but the Senegalese side, in his words, demanded the payment of a fine of three million euro.

The situation around the Oleg Naidenov, Krainy stressed, was an economic dispute that could be settled at any instance - either a law of the sea tribunal, international commissions or any other court bodies.

“Our demands are simple and clear - to release the trawler. We hope for a diplomatic solution to this problem,” he said. “I think we will be able to unblock the situation before the Russian side and the ship owner file a lawsuit.”

The Oleg Naidenov suspected of illegal fishing within Senegalese waters was seized by the Senegalese military 46 miles of Guinea-Bissau on January 4 with 82 crew onboard, including 62 Russians and 20 citizens of Guinea-Bissau, and convoyed to the port of Dakar on January 5. During the seizure several sailors were injured.

The Oleg Naidenov is owned by private company Fenix, registered in Murmansk, the extreme northwest part of Russia. It is a big fishing boat of Moonzund type, 120 meters long, built in Germany in 1989.

The crew remains on board the vessel under control of the Senegalese law enforcers. Sailors’ passports were confiscated soon after the arrest and the crew was not allowed to leave the trawler.