Zhirinovsky wants to arm Russian trawlers
Populist leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party and vice-chairman of the State Duma says Russia should take the most hard line against Norway to stop openly pirate attack on Russian sailors in Arctic waters.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky calls the Norwegian Coast Guard the “European Somali” in a statement published following the arrest of the trawler “Sapphire II” in the fishery protection zone near Svalbard.
“Sapphire II” was towed to port in Tromsø in northern Norway by the Norwegian Coast Guard. The police are now investigating what the Coast Guard says was illegally dumping of fish from the trawler last week.
- Such an action is unacceptable, it’s time to put the Norwegians in place, says Zhirinovsky in the statement.
He describes the action by the Norwegian Coast Guard as “barbarism” and says it requires immediate action to free the crew of “Sapphire II.”
- Once again, the Norwegians sized a vessel belonging to the Russian Federation. It was fishing in international waters, without violating anyone’s laws and regulations, Zhirinovsky claims.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky is world-famous for both nationalistic and populist statements and he is well known for his boasts pertaining to other countries. In the last Duma election in 2007, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) received 8% of the vote and by that got 40 seats in the State Duma.
To stop “European Somali,” Vladimir Zhirinovsky proposes to allow fitting out Russian fishery trawlers and let them show arm resistance in case of applying purely pirate methods by the Norwegian side, the LDPR statement reads.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday officially protested the Norwegian arrest of the trawler, calling it “inadmissible and provocative.”
