VLADIVOSTOK. Nov 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The large anti-submarine vessel Admiral Panteleyev, which belongs to the Russian Pacific Fleet, has left Russia's territorial waters with the hydrographic vessel G-7; the two vessels are heading towards the location of the Russian freezer trawler Tulun in the Sea of Japan.
"The ships must meet the Tulun and escort it to Vladivostok," the Pacific Fleet's press service told Interfax on Wednesday.
A maritime border guard aircraft spotted the trawler and is currently monitoring it, although radio contact has not been established with the vessel, the press service said. Two ocean speed boats from the Russian Federal Border Guard Service are also approaching the Tulun to escort it.
The Russian General Staff on Tuesday received information from the marine police of the South Korean port of Pusan that the Tulun, which belongs to the company Region on the Sakhalin Island, was seized by armed individuals early on November 16.
However, it became clear on Wednesday morning that the Tulun is heading for its registration port of Kholmsk, located on Sakhalin Island. Interfax obtained this information from a source with the Russian Transportation Ministry's coordinating rescue center, which cited a telegram from the Tulun's captain.
According to the latest information, "there has been no armed seizure of the vessel, and the matter is about financial disputes between two Russian Far Eastern fishing companies," the source said. None of the 22 crewmembers of the Tulun were hurt.