The newly appointed ministers of the new Norwegian government barely received the keys to their offices before a crisis reared its head in the chilling, storm-tossed Barents Sea.

A Norwegian Coast Guard vessel inspected the trawler Elektron and found evidence illegal fishing occurred. The Coast Guard wanted to bring the vessel to a Norwegian port, but the Murmansk-based trawler set sail toward its home port with two representatives from the Norwegian Coast Guard aboard.

This was a very peculiar situation that attracted much media attention in both Russia and Norway.