MOSCOW. Feb 26 (Interfax) - Moscow has hailed Monday's release of 15 Russian sailors on bail on guarantees from the Russian Embassy in Lagos, describing it as "the first positive development" in a story that began with the sailors arrest a few months ago after weapons were found on board their ship, the Myre Seadiver, at the Lagos port.
Russia's Foreign Ministry cited the Nigerian government as promising after a telephone conversation between the Russian and Nigerian foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Olugbenga Ashiru, that the sailors would be allowed to return to Russia as a humanitarian gesture and a way to preserve "friendly" bilateral relations.
The sailors "will be provisionally settled on the premises of the embassy compound in Lagos and must remain in Nigeria pending the termination of the court investigation of the case of the seizure of the ship and the arrest of its crew on charges of illegal entry into Nigerian territorial waters with undeclared weapons and ammunition on board, or pending a court ruling allowing them to leave the country," the ministry said in a statement posted on its website, www.mid.ru.