The Russian Fishing Committee believes that Norway has imposed unlawful restrictions on the presence of Russian fishermen near the Spitsbergen island, Interfax reports.
"Norway has been prohibiting Russian vessels to fish near Spitsbergen, which is unlawful from the point of view of international law," Committee spokesman Alexander Savelyev told Interfax.
It has been reported that a Norwegian coast guard vessel made a vast area near the Spitsbergen island off limit for Russian fishing boats, citing excess catches of small fish.
"This perennial dispute has gone on for many years now because of failure to solve the fishing issues near Spitsbergen, while each country is guided by its own regulations, which are not identical," Savelyev said.
"This is why Norwegian coast guards, guided by their Norwegian regulations, either impose fishing restrictions on Russian fishermen or regularly detain our vessels, escort them to their [Norwegian] ports, sue us, though eventually we win the cases," he said.