RUSSIAN FISHING VESSEL SETS SAIL FROM JAPANESE PORT, HEADS NORTH








TOKYO, March 4. /RIA Novosti's correspondent Vyacheslav Bantin/. Today the Russian fishing vessel CTM-17 left the Wakkanai port, which it entered in fleeing from launches and aircraft of the Russian Frontier Service, at 18:48, local time, has left Japan's territorial waters and is heading north. The RIA Novosti correspondent learnt this by telephone from the Japanese marine security department at Wakkanai. 


	"We don't exactly know where the Russian ship is sailing but for sure it is heading north and has already left the Japanese territorial waters", said a spokesman of the Wakkanai department, which is also the coast guard. Its launches escorted the ship to the Japanese territorial-waters border, he said. 


	 The ship of 243-tonne displacement is missing one crewman, who disappeared the day before. "The police are looking for him", said the official of the marine security department.


	It looks like captain Sergei Stepanov also tried to disappear: on Saturday he disappeared in an unknown direction and could not be found for several hours. It is not yet known whether he has returned to his ship on his own or on the insistence of the Japanese authorities. 


	On February 20 Russian border guards ordered the ship to cut the engine and drift on the suspicion that it was carrying contraband. The ship raised the Japanese flag and refused to comply. Although the border guards used firearms the ship was evading the pursuit of the Russian launches and aircraft. After 12 hours of pursuit the CTM-17 with 13 crewmen on board left the Russian territorial waters. 


	In the Japanese territorial waters, launches of the Japanese marine security department, which had received information from the Russian Frontier Service, on February 21 were awaiting for the fugitive fishing vessel. The ship was escorted to Wakkanai, where its team was interrogated and the ship thoroughly examined. No cargo could be discovered aboard the CTM-17 and the Japanese authorities urged its immediate withdrawal from the Japanese territorial waters. 


	The captain refused, insisting on the engine's urgent and serious repair.