Seven sailors from Russia's Kaliningrad region on board the ship the Nadir docked at the Baltic Sea port barricaded themselves aboard in late August in an effort to force the owners of the vessel to pay them.
They succeeded in getting 90 percent of their pay, 300,000 litas ($75,000), transferred from a Cyprus bank to Lithuania and brought to the ship by a Lithuanian company, Uosto Vartai (Harbor Gates).
The firm also brought groceries on the night of Sept. 6 because the crew had been lacking food and were drinking only water.
A representative of the Lithuanian Marine Workers Union accompanied the Russian crew to the Kaliningrad border on Sept. 10 to prevent any possible attack or attempts to steal the money the sailors had received.
The conflict between Russian sailors and their employers, British company Kasomo International Ltd. and Russian company Vals International Holding, was solved following the interference of Russia's human rights commissioner Oleg Mironov.
At a meeting with representatives of these companies in Klaipeda on Sept. 7, Mironov demanded that the violation of the crew's human rights be stopped as soon as possible.
Mironov told a news conference in Vilnius that the conduct of the Nadir owners was unacceptable.
"We can't be indifferent to the fact that seven sailors, Russian citizens, have been aboard a floating prison for three years. Now they even lack food," he said.
Three of the Nadir's crew received partial payment for earlier arrears, while another, who was pregnant, received full payment. The four departed for home together.
The ships the Nadir and the Novator, formerly the property of Russia, have been sitting in Klaipeda since 1999. They were to have sailed to Spain for repairs, and then receive shipping orders from a Norwegian company. Neither of these things ever took place. Instead, ownership of the ships changed hands, and the new owners raised the flags of Belize and Cyprus on deck.
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