MOSCOW, January 17 (RAPSI) – Russian diplomats cannot confirm the rumor that Senegal’s parliament has decided to release the Russian-flagged trawler Oleg Naydenov, RIA Novosti reported Friday.

“We have not had any confirmation of this. It may come through any minute, but so far we have not heard anything,” the agency quoted Minister Counselor Oleg Sergeyev as having said.

He said the embassy was in direct communication with the Russian Federal Fishery Agency, which has not confirmed the allegations about the parliament’s decision either.

“We ask the agency for information first of all and it has had no word on this issue so far,” Sergeyev said.

Senegal’s parliament discussed the issue of the Russian trawler on Thursday. The Senegalese Navy detained the vessel, suspected of illegal fishing in Senegalese waters, on January 4 some 46 miles off the coast of Guinea Bissau and convoyed it to Dakar.

Andrei Krainy, Head of the Russian Fishery Agency, said on January 10 that the Senegalese authorities had ordered the trawler’s owner to pay a fine of $3 million.