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Murmansk fish factory sues Russian Government over fish imports ban

The Supreme Court building in Moscow.

Murmansk Fish Combinat has filed a claim with Russia’s Supreme Court against the country’s government over the ban on fish imports – a step the Federation Council calls ‘unprecedented’ and ‘welcome’.

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Director of Murmansk Fish Combinat Mikhail Zub has filed a claim with the Supreme Court to have the Government’s resolution to ban import of fish and other foodstuffs from Norway, EU, US and other countries, recognized as partly unlawful. According to Zub, the Government’s resolution does not correspond to President Putin’s decree on import ban when it comes to live fish, ITAR-TASS reports.

Murmansk Fish Combinat last week had to shut down production as shipment of live fish from Norwegian vessel stopped due to the sanctions, BarentsObserver reported. Murmansk Fish Combinat is technologically only capable of processing live fish. Until Russia imposed sanctions on import of fish from Norway on August 7, the fish was brought to Murmansk by Norwegian fish carriers. In Russia this type of fishing is almost non-existent.

“The mere fact that someone has claimed such a file is on one hand unprecedented and on the other hand welcome”, Deputy Head of the Federation Council’s Committee for Constitutional Legislation Konstantin Dobrynin says to Interfax. “Welcome, because it shows that the subjects of the Russian legal system are not afraid to speak out against the state itself”.

According to Dobrynin the claim from Murmansk Fish Combinat highlights two key points: “That introducing retaliatory sanctions should not mean shooting yourself in the foot, that is to say not to play against the interests of the country’s own food security or any other security; that the authorities probably will soon have to revise certain points in the resolution on sanctions in order to ensure food security and vital interest of Russian consumers and food producers”.

The court meeting will be held on November 11, according to the Supreme Court’s web site