Moscow said Tuesday that Senegalese authorities would release the Russian trawler Oleg Naydenov after impounding the ship for two weeks over alleged illegal fishing.

Yury Parshev, acting director of Feniks, the firm in Russia's northwestern city of Murmansk that owns the trawler, said the Senegalese authorities were processing paperwork to let the ship go.

"Senegalese authorities confirmed the trawler's release," he told Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

The conditions for the release were not immediately clear.

Senegal impounded the Oleg Naydenov on January 4 after accusing it of illegal fishing in its waters, causing an uproar in the Russian press.

Senegalese Fisheries Minister Haidar El-Ali said earlier that the government had asked the ship to pay a fine of 400 million CFA francs (about $825,000) and further more substantial compensation for losses to the fishing community.

However Russia has denied any wrongdoing and even accused Senegal of piracy, while the owner of the Oleg Naydenov threatened to sue Senegal in a maritime court.

The drama in west Africa followed last year's impounding by Russia of the Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise after the group's protest against oil drilling in the Barents Sea. The ship is still in the port of Murmansk.